Somerville's utility poles are pretty well filled with power, Verizon copper, Comcast coax and RCN coax. This is particularly true in areas to the east of Winter Hill as there are a lot of multi-family domiciles that are spaced so close that you could almost reach out your window and shake your neighbor's hand.
With Comcast and RCN offering high speed data, TV and phone services I don't see Verizon making any effort to remove dead cables. I also suspect that the two cable providers also have excess stuff abandoned overhead.
Interesting thing about Verizon in Somerville...the company was at one time looking to offer cable TV over the existing copper OSP. I was told by former co-workers who used to work for New England Telephone that the equipment was installed in the Verizon central office, but, the service never came to fruition, so, the equipment was taken right back out.
