Mystery buried wire - explained?

I believe I figured out the original purpose of the mystery buried wire. But even if I'm right, I think it's strange it was done that way in the first place!

[@ddessert6]

That cable was definitely a phone line type cable and most likely was put in by Frontier. The cable would normally be at least 18" from the surface if they did it per code. The ground junction box indicates that underground phone lines were installed at some point and might still be used as a backup feed though not likely anymore. Most the the phone junction boxes are on the pole for above ground phone lines but now fibre is being installed though Frontier had been taking fibre to the pole and then cooper from the pole to the house but to compete with Spectrum and Green Light, fibre is now going to the house to provide gigabit Internet and phone service.