I'm building a new house, contracting it myself. I plan to have all outside wiring underground. My local ComEd field supervisor told me that if I had them do the job, they would put in not only the electrical cable, but also the telephone and CATV cable as well. He says that they normally just throw all three cables into the trench all at once. The thing is that to have them do it, it would cost me (according to this guy) somewhere around $2K.
Being the cheapskate that I am, I'm thinking that I could trench it myself for about $100. The electrical cable would cost me about another $100. So that just leaves the phone and CATV lines. The CATV cable I already have taken care of via other means, but not the phone cable...
Earlier this week I called AT&T, and was eventually passed along to their "Midwest Buried Wire Center". Like their name says, they supply underground cable to their customers. So, I requested (and got) some underground cable delivered to my house, which I plan to put into my trench. But the thing I'm curious about is that the phone cable which AT&T dropped off is coax. I was expecting some type of multi-pair cable.
So, finally, here's the question: Is this how phone service is being delivered to the house these days, via coax cable? Or did they just goof up and give me the wrong cable?
