This guide was prompted by the question, "Which parts of my telephone landline connection are the responsibility of the phone company and which are mine, and what is the law that says this?" This led us down quite an interesting path of inquiry. Basic internet searches for terms such as telephone landline equipment responsibilities resulted in multiple mentions of "who owns what?" in the cases of landlines, phone lines, and other utilities. Many of them used the term "demarcation point" to indicate the division of where the company's equipment ends and the property owner's equipment begins. Unfortunately, none of these resources provided actual citations or references to the law. We found nothing specific in the New Hampshire statutes and there was nothing definitive in the state's administrative rules.
At last, a print resource on real property gave us the answer. You wouldn't think a treatise on real estate law would be helpful when dealing with a telecommunications question, would you? This is an excellent lesson in effective researching. It's important to think broadly and narrowly when doing searches. If you use too many search terms, or if you limit yourself to a resource that is too narrow in scope, you can easily travel in the wrong direction or find absolutely nothing helpful at all. By broadening our search to include resources that talk about property and homeownership, we were able to find a new path to lead us to what we needed. The index entry for "telecommunications - demarcation point" in Powell on Real Property led to section 70C.07[3] - "FCC Wiring Dockets: Telephone Inside Wire, Cable Home Wire, and the “Demarcation Point”", which cites a Federal Communications Commission document (FCC 99-141) and the Code of Federal Rules (47 CFR Part 68). These FCC rules define and outline which parts of a landline telecommunications connection are the responsibility of the property owner and which fall to the telephone company.
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