Enjoy reading this site, lurking about 8 years now of and on, finally need to make a first post to get some info --

If I were to put a DC voltmeter across a pair of telephone wires (direct from the pole, no NID or other anything else attached) should that measure ~48VDC if POTS and DSL is active on the line?

Moved into a new house, ordered POTS and DSL... I've got 3 cables at the side of the house, 6 pairs, two are aerial drops and one rises up out of the ground... one 30 year old crusty NID on the house, and a shadow where another likely existed years ago but since removed. 1 of the aerial drops is connected to the NID, opening the the telco side of the NID I probe both pairs from the drop and they measure 0VDC. The other 2 cables I stripped back to bare copper, all 4 pairs measure 0VDC.

According to the phone company everything should be working on their side. They are dispatching a tech, but have cautioned me up and down that I'll be charged some expensive hourly rate if the problem isn't on their side, so I want to be sure I've done my diligence as best I can.

You're good -

DSL might not have battery but for sure POTS will. Since I assume you have both on one pair then there should be battery and dialtone. Does the one connected DEMARC have a jack where you can plug in a phone to test the line? Don't worry about their BS, they are supposed to provide a working DEMARC for you to connect your inside wiring.

-Hal

It is possible to have battery without dialtone. As Hal suggested, connect a telephone (or buttset) to verify the presence of dialtone. If you do have a buttset check for proper polarity (even though modern equipment is not polarity sensitive).

Thanks for your responses everyone!

Hal, the NID does have two jacks to connect network side to customer side (and for testing), but the way it's wired now it ought to be fool proof (famous last words) -- wiring consists of just a 3' length of 4-conductor station wire connecting R/G and B/Y from the customer side of the NID to a jack on the opposite side of that wall where I have a 2-line cordless phone plugged in, no DT on either line.

That, combined w/ the lack of ~48VDC at the network side of the NID (and from the telco drop itself), has lead to me believe the pairs are just dead...

In theory Verizon has a technician coming out today to look at it, so we'll see what happens, hopefully just something at the pole needs connecting -- today is appointment #2, they didn't show up to appointment #1, when I called and asked why they no-showed they said that the #1 appointment wasn't actually for a technician to go on-site, just for them to do their work at the CO, and that I had misunderstood their original request that "someone over 18 be present at the home" for that appointment as meaning that someone would actually come to my home

...more than than likely they are correct that the #1 appointment was not a technician visit, it was probably a service start date for billing but the phone rep I was talking to muscle-memoried the "someone over 18 must be home" phrase into the conversation by accident.

Don't let them talk you into "Inside Wiring Maintenance" 😂

Verizon is pushing that service again. The other day, when renewing my FiOS commitment, I had to listen to the rep mention all of the great benefits of having the inside wiring coverage....this despite the fact that I told her multiple times that I worked in telecommunications for 23 years and was quite proficient with wiring.

I saw this kind of work back during Verizon days here in Maine (then became Fairpoint, and now Consolidated) and it continues on. They have the CO tech do the frame wiring, and they submit all done (for their work). Then I think the system thinks just because the CO tech did the frame work, that the entire loop from CO to prem is done, so the order is done. When in reality, F1 and F2 crossconnects might still need to be done, drops might need to be repaired, someone frogged pairs and didn't report it, etc... all of those needing I&R tech to do. And the vice versa might happen: I&R tech actually goes to NID and builds loop out to CO, but needs CO tech do frame wire, but that doesn't get done, I&R submits done, order is "done". It's all a mess now and won't get any better. It's all about metrics not getting the job done right. Sorry to be doom and gloom.

At our old house, built 1935, whenever we had Telco issues I would have to direct the tech to the correct pedestal because their paperwork was incorrect and never got updated.

The drop was not on the new feed at the end of our driveway, nor was it across the street and a block away (as the records showed) but directly across the street. "Trust me, I know where it is."

Finally after living there 25 years they replaced the burial cable to the house due to no available good pairs in the original pedestal.

What is the going rate for that service from other telcos? Here in Manitoba (BellMTS) they want $5.95 Cdn ($4.42US) a month for wire watch. And that is per line

Directlink calls it WireGuard for $3.95 per month in our little town, while in the metropolis of Portland
Centurylink calls it Maintenance Protection Plan and charges $5-$7.00 per month per line residential.

I think CCI no longer offers Inside Wire Maintenance (I think VZ was the one who discontinued it, then FP continued that practice). I think they've just gone to billable hourly charges. I could be mistaken.