Quote Originally Posted by dr. d View Post
i'm not sure...
is that a power cable, or is that a cable containing numerous smaller wires inside... like a telephone cable?

the exposed metal is not the electrical connection. its function might be to protect the real electrical connections hidden inside, and to manage the strain the cables are experiencing.
The uppermost wires are the hi-voltage primaries. The lower are the distribution from the transformer(balanced or unbalanced single or 3-phase). a meter below the secondary that are usually on level of the alley arm are the telco, cable, fiber optic, barangay cctv wires. Those wires may or may have no messenger wire on it, some have built-in messenger wires to suspend them without breaking the conductors.