A telegraph post, telegraph pole or telephone pole is a post or pole upon which telephone network equipment is situated. Similar poles are often used for electricity cables (with pylons being used for only the higher voltage applications).

Telegraph posts are usually wooden, but vary greatly from nation to nation. In some countries, for example the UK, posts have sets of brackets arranged in a standard pattern up the post to act as foot holds for those working on the equipment or connections atop the pole.

The appearance of posts has changed with technology through the 20th Century, with for example the loss of the stereotypical but now redundant crossbeam used to mount rows of insulators. These more traditional poles can sometimes be seen unaltered beside railways, or where no effort has been made to purposely remove crossbeams not in use.

Today telegraph poles may hold much more than the uninsulated thin copper wire that they originally supported. Thicker cables holding many twisted pair lines, or even fibre-optic cable may run between poles. While simple analogue repeaters or other equipment has long been mounted against poles, often new digital equipment for multiplexing/demultiplexing or digital repeaters may now be seen.

External links

• Lots of photographs (http://www.photovault.com/Link/Industry/Construction/ElectricTelephone/ICEVolume01.html)
• Hungarian Telephone Poles (http://myinsulators.com/hungary/pole-m.html)