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Cable Utility

Outline of the Issue

For many years, cable companies around the world have often installed cable lines to homes and businesses in ways that are not ideal. A common problem is that an important safety connection to the earth, called a “ground,” is missing or done poorly where the cable first connects to the building. This point is called the “demarcation” or “demarc” – it’s where the cable company’s responsibility ends and the cable enters the home to feed your TV, internet modem, or other equipment.

Why This Matters: Lightning and Electricity

Lightning storms can cause serious trouble. As Benjamin Franklin might say, lightning is an incredible force of nature. Without electricity, life as we know it today would not be possible – and even now, we don’t fully understand it. But we do know how to use it to power much of our modern world.

Ben Franklin studied electricity and invented the lightning rod to protect buildings from lightning strikes, which can cause fires and loss of life. You can think of the cable TV (CATV) wire coming into your home like a kind of lightning rod. To protect your home and equipment, it needs to be properly connected to the earth through a good ground.

Imagine lightning like a whip cracking along a wire, sending a powerful electrical wave toward your home. If there is no proper ground to “hold” that energy and safely send it into the earth, that energy can travel into your house instead, where it can damage equipment or even create safety risks.

Executive Summary / Introduction

This web site raises a basic safety question: Are outdoor cable and communication lines in Franklin being installed and maintained in a way that protects residents from fire and shock hazards, as required by state law and local ordinances?

Over the past several weeks, we have documented multiple homes in my neighborhood—at least eight within three blocks of my address—where the cable television (CATV) grounding equipment appears to be installed improperly or is missing altogether. This equipment, usually a small metal block where the cable company’s line first enters the property, is supposed to be securely attached and connected to the home’s grounding system. When it is not properly installed:

Cable companies are well aware of the issues and some:
Others:

You have remedies that you may not be aware of:

  1. Public Utility Commissions;
  2. or Public Service Commissions (PSC);
  3. Consumer Protection Agencies of the State (DACPT);
  4. Your City Administrator that manages the Cable Franchise Contract; and
  5. The Courts typically Small claims.

Your State/Wisconsin’s electrical safety rules (SPS 316 and the National Electrical Code) and your city or County own ordinances are designed to prevent exactly these kinds of hazards. They require that electrical and communication equipment be:

Despite this, it appears that:

  1. The City’s Electrical Inspector has been aware for several weeks of multiple unsafe or non‑compliant cable grounding installations but we are unawares of any ordered inspection repairs, disconnections, or other corrective actions.
  1. The City may be relying on a narrow interpretation of state rules to claim it has no jurisdiction over outdoor cable installations, even though those same rules clearly cover “electrical power and communication equipment and lines” and Franklin’s own code requires that low‑voltage and CATV wiring follow state electrical standards.

These concerns are not merely technical. They go to the City’s legal duty to safeguard residents and manage risk:

This letter therefore:

Reference Codes Statutes

Regulatory Consumer Protection

Relevant Wisconsin Court Opines

Reference:

List of City Building Inspectors

List Wisconsin County Electrical Inspectors

Memorandum:

Technical Memorandum: Wisconsin Utility Negligence Precedents}