Curious doings

Just before lunch yesterday, these two trucks showed up across the road. They used a big auger attached to a crane on the bigger truck to drill a hole in the ground next to the existing utility pole. Then, again with the crane, they planted a new utility pole in the hole. When it was done, they moved out to the end of the road and did it again.

The new pole is shorter that the one it's planted next to. Taken with the Pixel 6.

I'm curious as to what these poles are for. We know that the communications folks are working on installing fiber optic cable in our area, including our neighborhood (yay!). This likely has something to do with that. But what? There was already a guy here last week that added new cables and what I assume are switching or connection boxes on the existing poles.

The second pole being lifted into place. Taken with the Pixel 6.

If these are replacement poles, why was something new added to the poles to be replaced? If they're not replacement poles, are they some kind of temporary pole? And for what? Our existing phone lines (and now the fiber line) come up from down the hill along our road. Up here in our hamlet, they share the poles with our power lines. You might recall that the power line that serves our hamlet was put underground some years ago. However, the lines that connect each house to the transformer are still up on poles and in use.

So, what gives? We'll have to wait and see. We're excited about the arrival of fiber in the 'hood. It's been talked about for a decade or more and now it's finally happening.