A managed bulk drilling system that employs a guide wire for ranging and crosswell telemetry. Some system embodiments include multiple drilling assemblies operating in the vicinity of a reference well that contains an electrical cable. The electrical cable is coupled to a surface control system. The control system uses the electrical cable as part of an antenna to receive uplink signals from the drilling assemblies and to broadcast down-link signals to the drilling assemblies. The uplink signals can include position data and the downlink signals can include individual steering commands to adjust the trajectories of each drilling assembly. The cable can also generate a guidance field for the drilling assemblies to detect and follow.