This is provided by the electrician. The electrical company's liability ends at the meter. Often, they will not provide service until there is a proper ground for the premise. This ground rod is the electrical system ground - my pedantic point here was the ground at the pole isn't designed to ground your home/business, but is for the power company. As far as new homes, there is usually a grounding bar provided at/near the electrical meter, as the system electrical ground needs to be within 20 feet wire length from the point of entry of electrical service. Other electrical systems are required to use this ground (though they don't physically need to be there, they need to run a ground back to this grounding bar. This is considered a common electrical bond. It's all designed to make everything safer. For the purposes of code, every different system, your home network, your telephones, your CATV, etc, is considered a separate "system" and, according to NEC, should be bonded to the common electrical bond. Water pipes, etc, are no longer accepted according to code. ----- Eric F Crist On Jan 4, 2013, at 12:55:08, Justin Krejci <jus at krytosvirus.com> wrote: > I have very recent experience on this having just recently built a new house. When getting the physical phone lines run from the pedestal in the street to the house I had a curve ball thrown at me as the phone line HAS to be connected to the house where the power comes in. Where the power comes in there HAS to be a dedicated ground with a provided grounding plate for phone and others to ground to. This is per code according to both the CenturyLink tech and my electrician. So whether the "power company" has to provide the ground directly or "the electrician responsible for the house wiring" has to provide the ground... I don't know, I just know it IS required to be present for code.