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BT Fibre Pulls Out of Chelsea Over Ugly Equipment Cabinets

Posted by timothy on from the sounds-like-some-elvis-costello-lyrics dept.

judgecorp writes "The up-market London borough of Kensington and Chelsea has lost its chance for BT fast fibre. After residents objected to the ugly fibre cabinets, and the council repeatedly refused permission to install them in historic sites, BT has said the borough will not get its fast BT Infinity product at all. The borough says it doesn't need BT, as Richard Branson's Virgin Media has got it more or less covered."

15 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Agreed by Grizzley9 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    TBH, those are fairly ugly. Seems there could be a market for disguising them just like they do some cell phone towers or simply having the city allow it to be put in spaces not out in the open.

    1. Re:Agreed by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      They look pretty similar to the Virgin boxes that the residents seem to be fine about. Maybe a bit taller.

      BT Infinity is made of fail anyway. It's expensive, slow and capped to hell. Rather than do real fibre to the premises they decided to roll out last century's technology.

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    2. Re:Agreed by RdeCourtney · · Score: 4, Informative

      BC Hydro here allow kids to put murals on the boxes like this and they also wrap a lot of the boxes in flowers and tree photos to blend them into the environment..

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    3. Re:Agreed by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Couldn't they have made them into the shape of the old red payphones? This seems like the company was being a bit arrogant.

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    4. Re:Agreed by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This type of Infrastructure stays around for 50 years on average, and there's no need to accept such crappie equipment strewn all over the landscape because once in, you are stuck, they will never improve or replace them.

      If you don't force them to do it right the first time, it will look like hell forever.

      I have a ground mounted transformer, a telephone cabinet , a cable company cabinet all sitting in my front yard, all because the subdivision builder granted them easements. The service companies bitch where I shroud them with Rhodies.

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    5. Re:Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If they made them to look like blue police call boxes people would be fighting over having one on their street.

    6. Re:Agreed by strength_of_10_men · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here in Ann Arbor, the city has allowed local artists to adopt and paint these types of boxes as well as fire hydrants. It's actually pretty neat. It doesn't quite make them disappear into the background but they're not quite the eyesore anymore.

      http://julihoffman.wordpress.com/tag/ann-arbor-photos/

    7. Re:Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Our street in Ontario has the same problem. Every 8-10 houses you get three service boxes in your front yard (I'm not a utility nerd, so I'm not sure what's what), one of which is the approximate width and depth of a washing machine, and perhaps two and a half feet high, and painted the same green as the boxes in the BT story. All down the street you have these ugly-ass boxes that have been graffitied by neighborhood kids. They bitch when you plant something to camouflage them, but you can't get the bastards to come out and paint the thing when it gets tagged. I really don't want to look like I live in a crackhouse. Props to Chelsea and Kensington for giving BT the whatfor, because once these things are in you're not going to get rid of them.

    8. Re:Agreed by ShakingSpirit · · Score: 5, Informative

      They look pretty similar to the Virgin boxes that the residents seem to be fine about. Maybe a bit taller.

      BT Infinity is made of fail anyway. It's expensive, slow and capped to hell. Rather than do real fibre to the premises they decided to roll out last century's technology.

      BT Infinity is great, and pretty much the best choice for internet access in the UK, just as long as you don't get it from BT... Plenty of other providers which resell the same FTTC service but without the crappy throttling/shaping. I'm with Zen and get 60down/20up solidly, couldn't be happier to be honest.

    9. Re:Agreed by ATMD · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I was on UKFSN when I lived with people, but had to switch to a cheaper ISP when I started living on my own. If I could afford it I'd definitely go back, though - proper business-grade ADSL, a /29 subnet, fantastic latency and great customer support (it's run by a geek in his garage).

      That was a couple of years ago so it may have changed, but I'd certainly be willing to try them again if I had the chance.

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  2. A new paintjob? by Kozz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps if they're painted like a police box, nobody will even notice they're present?

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  3. How it really happened... by 3vi1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    In my mind, I like to picture this spat ending with them shouting "INDUBITABLY!" at each other and throwing tea.

  4. Re:Aesthetics by MrNaz · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you are unable to see that aesthetics actually has functional value, then I'm surprised you're actually capable of the emotion of "sadness".

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  5. FFS by icebraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The borough says it doesn't need BT, as Richard Branson's Virgin Media has got it more or less covered.

    Yeah, and who needs competition, we all know monopolies are the best way to ensure low prices and good services, am I right?

    I understand that the boxes may be ugly, but that statement is utterly moronic.

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  6. That only works by publiclurker · · Score: 4, Funny

    because LA looks like a cesspool to begin with.