It is also possible the telephone company wanted to keep their wires on separate poles in this instance for safety reasons. This was a fairly common practice in the early days. The pole supporting the phone circuits is the one on the right (with the six-pin crossarm and sidepins). The electric pole is immediately to its left with a street light on it.

Also note that the electric service lines extended to the top on the building across the street. In many instances (pre-c.1910) residential electric services were strung this way with the main fuse board and meter in the attic.