[GLLUG] What have BT done to our nearest cabinet?

Christopher Hunter cehunter at gb-x.org
Fri Jul 26 16:43:57 UTC 2013


On Fri, 2013-07-26 at 14:00 +0100, John Winters wrote:
> I've just been away for a few days and returned to noticed that BT seem 
> to have done some upgrade work on our nearest roadside telephone 
> cabinet.  A couple of the old, flat front doors have been removed and 
> replaced with doors that bulge outwards, adding perhaps 2-3" of extra 
> depth to the cabinet, plus they now have cooling fans which you can hear 
> running as you walk by.
> 
> Could this possibly be the long-awaited FTTC upgrade?  They upgraded our 
> exchange a year ago, but didn't bother to do the cabinets, so although 
> our exchange appears on the list of those with FTTC available, you can't 
> actually order it.
> 
> Anyone know whether this is what an FTTC upgrade looks like?
> 
> John
> 
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On our street (an early test site for FTTC), they completely replaced
the cabinets.  The new ones are very shiny deep green and have audible
fans. The vents are around the back, rather than in the doors, but yours
could be some kind of retro-fit upgrade.

The other possibility is that it's a new cell site - the MNOs are
putting in endless "micro cells" to fill in all the little service
holes.  You may find that there's an adjacent grey pole that flares at
the top which is usually installed at the same time as the micro site.

If it is a cell site, please don't tell your neighbours - you'll be
certain to get some misinformed nutter complaining about "radiation" and
they'll insist that it's removed.  Muswell Hill was a mobile desert for
years due to a stupid resident's group who objected to each and every
installation.  I formed a small group of like-minded pragmatists, and we
all offered our rooftops for cell sites!  We now have pretty good
coverage!

If you are getting "Infinity 2", be certain to turn off the "BT WiFi" if
you use their router - it reduces your throughput by up to 75% (though
they claim it doesn't).  I want ALL the bandwidth I'm paying for!

C.





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