Wealthy London NIMBYs grit teeth, welcome 'ugly' fibre cabinets BT has convinced residents of Kensington and Chelsea that they can live with "ugly" fibre optic cabling cabinets on their streets. The move comes after the Royal Borough rejected 96 of the installation proposals submitted by the national telco in May last year. Opposition to the cabinets has now collapsed, however, with the …
Now there will be big green thin steel sheet boxes just plonked wherever. The cheap paint will be easily scratched and they'll be full of dents.
So was there any attempt to make them more in keeping with surroundings? Maybe give them a thick coat of red paint and a little crown logo? Maybe even a curved top (not only aesthetically pleasing but will stop the oiks from sitting on it)
Actually, the BT ones are very sturdy. They seem to have servers or some form of electric machine inside them as they require 230V and have a fan whirring away inside.
But it's not so much the appearance I object to but the fact that they are installed on the pavement reducing the width of the path. Which is a real problem if some pillock has parked their car on the kerb as well.
Actually, the BT ones are very sturdy. They seem to have servers or some form of electric machine inside them as they require 230V and have a fan whirring away inside.
Um - that would be the whole point of the article. It's because the equipment is needed at street level that BT are having to install new cabinets.
Rule 244 actually states this:
You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it.
Now taking the whole sentence into context. Should not means in addition to the original must not. The critical point being the UNLESS clause. It has to be marked that you can park on the pavement for it to be legal.
"They seem to have servers or some form of electric machine inside them as they require 230V and have a fan whirring away inside." Thats the nature of the FTTC service, copper connections backhaul'd via a fibre connection to the POP.
"But it's not so much the appearance I object to but the fact that they are installed on the pavement reducing the width of the path. Which is a real problem if some pillock has parked their car on the kerb as well."
Give it 5 years when fibre connections are as pervasive as copper and the residents would be complaining that they don't have access to such speeds!
The great unwashed! The great bloody retarded more like.
"Councillor Tim Ahern claimed that the tech would be deployed "whilst safeguarding the historic integrity of the borough." He added that BT would work with the borough "in a spirit of cooperation".
Interestingly, the council had this to say in May 2012:
BT has not worked in a spirit of cooperation and needs to consider our historic streetscape. Perhaps one of its competitors will step into the role."
Europeans do modernisation, investment and progress far far better than the UK.
One think I dread when returning home, is the ugliness, tackiness, shoddy workmanship, mishmash of old and new and the general culture against change leaving cheap compromises.
The BT FTTC boxes look quite good to me, and provided that they are properly maintained the should continue to do so as they seem to be made of better materials than the standard green cabinets - possibly because they need to be as they will be stuffed full of active electronics powered off the mains. One of these has just been installed at the bottom of my road and, within a few days some oik sprayed some graffitti on it in silver paint. A few days later it had been cleaned off. Let's hope that they are kept maintained. Given what's in them, it will be in the company's interests to do so.
I've also not see any that are 6 foot tall - more like shoulder height to an average person. The FTTC cabinets in the adjacent borough of Hammersmith & Fulham look OK to me.
The last I heard are here there were plans to colour (paint) them more appropriately so they don't stick out like ugly sore thumbs. I believe that alternative shapes and designs were considered as well, as this is just a cover really as the interior will largely be the same.
But then telephone boxes are big red, largely useless (now) boxes, often scratched and damaged but they're a part of the sights of Britain now and quite a few are "protected" structures.
Doubtful they will go away. When you've got a home in a historic or heritage area you don't want to see it all bunked up by horridly designed infrastructure. That's why where I live they put it all underground or out of town near the water pumps and electric substations.
But I wonder how many of the people wingeing about "ugly" BT boxes actually also whine about how poor their broadband is?
I do agree, though, that BT could paint them in a selection of colours to make them stand out less. Stone grey for a street corner. Green for a park - that kind of thing. How hard could it be?
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