It’s this way because of how regulated everything is. You have to jump through hoops to get permission to do anything here in the U.S. in other countries you just do it.
It's fairly regulated here. The regulation says that the companies that own the poles are obligated to sell that space to any other telcos that want to rent it.
It would be interesting to see someone just do it in the U.S. as well. A couple of guys with some amber flashing lights on their trucks. One with a bucket truck, another with big spool of fiber; guys with hard hats and safety vests. Cops aren't going to stop and ask questions. Maybe a telco guy driving by might ask a supervisor if they even cared enough about it. Just have guys that can actually do it correctly so the finished work doesn't look suspicious.
Once it is up, the regulations will work for you. Some day, some other "legit" installer will come by and look at the cable and basically shrug their shoulders at it, and then do their work around it. It would take weeks if not longer to find out nobody knows who owns it. Nobody's going to take the time to trace it back. And I'm guessing nobody is going to just take it down for fear of taking the wrong thing down. Maybe they cut the line and wait around to see who comes to splice it?? It would make for an entertaining story.
A municipality local to me (New Lebanon, Ohio) "just did it" and hung 150 banners honoring local veterans from power poles. The local monopoly power company threatened the municipality with >$300 per-pole hanging fees and demanded they be removed. There was some back and forth but eventually the power company gave-in to public sentiment (honoring veterans and all). I would suspect "just doing it" would put you on the business-end of civil, if not criminal, litigation.
I have done this! It's harder/more stressful than you might think, but it's absolutely possible. We installed relay radios powered off the photocell plugs to bring low-speed internet to a family friend's farm, so the actual installation doesn't even involve wires between poles, just shims under the streetlamp photocells. Presumably they'll get knocked out when the streetlamps are upgraded... but it's been six years so far with no issues.
the issue with this approach is if you depend on it, it may just go away some day, either with the police called and if they track it back to you, you may be prosecuted under the laws that protect utilities. These are less forgiving than you might think.
It's a big deal to damage someone elses infrastructure, can result in bills and lawsuit to reclaim losses. If the pole owner notices, they may do something (or just ignore it). What you don't want is them tearing down your stuff without notice.
> Maybe they cut the line and wait around to see who comes to splice it?
I can't pull them up now, but I've seen a number of credible stories on the internet of Comcast and AT&T technicians going to homes to do service and then intentionally cutting lines of the other company that service the building or nearby houses. Obviously this isn't super common or it would be bigger news, but it definitely happens.
