Germany is also a significantly smaller area with more of the population in high density zones compared to most of the USA.
Aboveground cables are easier to repair and much less expensive to string up over thousands of miles.
Aboveground cables are easier to repair and much less expensive to string up over thousands of miles.
Lines exposed to the elements wear faster than buried lines and are subject to more outages due to weather and accidents.
It's just that in the USA towns and cities are either too disorganized or too cheap to invest properly in infrastructure. Burying lines seems like such a small thing until you realize how ugly lines strung everywhere are. It makes me feel like I am coming home to a third world country sometimes.
I suspect the major difference is that the power and phone companies in the little town are customer-owned coops while the utilities in my metro area are huge conglomerates.