back to article New broadband minister snubs 'ugly' fibre cabinet gripes

Brits will no longer be able to object to the arrival of "ghastly" fibre optic cabling cabinets outside their homes: Blighty's new broadband minister has stamped her authority on moves to upgrade the nation's internet infrastructure that sidestep local councils. Maria Miller, who replaced Jeremy Hunt earlier this week during …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. John H Woods Silver badge

    If we are going to have a massive push towards better connectivity...

    ... there should be at least some emphasis on wireless and mobile provision. Surely this is where much of the future of internet connectivity lies?

    1. the spectacularly refined chap

      Re: If we are going to have a massive push towards better connectivity...

      Everything looks rosy when you implicitly assume infinite spectrum or that Shannon can be cast aside with a magic wand. In reality the laws of physics kick in and you are essentially left with three options:

      1) Everyone has low speed, long distance wireless communications.

      2) A privileged few have high speed, long distance wireless communications.

      3) Everyone can have high speed, short distance communications.

      Options one and two are unacceptable politically. Option three increases the effective bandwidth available by allowing the same frequencies to be re-used repeatedly in different areas and is the only acceptable option. However, it is the one that places the greatest demands on the physical network providing the service - in other words, on street cabinets and underground cables.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If we are going to have a massive push towards better connectivity...

        Shannon? You're getting Rockall :P

  2. Werner McGoole
    Devil

    Leafy suburbs demand... leaves

    They should do what they do with phone masts (i.e. make them look like trees). I'm sure a few plastic leaves could make them look like a nice bit of suburban shrubbery, or a hedge, or topiary even. Depending on how posh the neighbourhood is.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Leafy suburbs demand... leaves

      "Some Countries" have redundant ex-KGB offices in lots of locations which invariably come with rather splendid 20+m-high radio masts in the garden which can be (and are) made prettier and more sightly by putting nice shiny new cellphone and other comms antennae on them. Sometimes the buildings are now tourist hostels etc.(less screaming) Recycling in action, very Green :P

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      WTF?

      Re: Leafy suburbs demand... leaves

      You're planning to ask them to get you a shrubbery first when they turn up to install the box?

      Do you say "Ni" a lot too?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There are other reasons to object to cabinets, not just aesthetic reasons.They can clutter up the pavements and make it hard for the blind and wheelchair users to get pass. Especially when combined with the problem of idiots parking their cars on the kerb.

    They do tend to attract vandalism and graffiti too.

  4. Zot
    Facepalm

    Government hates Virgin Media?

    http://www.markyboy.net/vmbox.jpg

    (Vandalised here of course)

    You can see the Virgin Media boxes look tiny in comparison. Yet they lost the bids? They're currently supplying me with a measurable 60Mb connection, and I don't remember seeing any boxes in the surrounding streets.

    I don't understand.

  5. despairing citizen
    Big Brother

    put an end to local democracy

    The ministerial "put an end to local bureaucracy" actually means put an end to local democracy.

    The average planning application goes through in a couple of weeks, it takes BT Openreach 90 days to planning the procurement of toliet paper, let alone put stuff in the ground.

    Additionally if the cable co's cant get a PM that plans to have to submit a planning app, suitably in advance the date they need permission (along with all the other paper work for Highways to know you want to block the street with equipment, etc,) then they should sack them and get somebody competant,

    The idea of the planning system for the last 50+ years, is to make sure that appropriate, thought through development takes place, and that the local comunity that is impacted by the development can have it's say.

    One would suggest that if BT, et al, spent half as much money engaging with the local comunities that it did in wine'ing and dining ministers and party functionaries, they probably would have less planning objections!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: put an end to local democracy

      'Localism' didn't last very long, did it?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rubbish

    I have one of the offending cabinets a few yards from my house. It is almost identical to the old cabinet that stands nearby, except that it is much more nicely painted.

    Before you complain about a few relatively small, rectangular, metal boxes each of which helps connect hundreds of people to the Internet, why not complain about telephone wires and poles, TV aerials, microwave towers, satellite dishes, bus stops, letter boxes, electricity substations, railway stations, railway lines, trains... the list is almost endless.

  7. Dan White
    Happy

    One appeared outside my house...

    ... about six months ago, courtesy of Virgin Media.

    It's a squat beige box of ugliness, which I can forgive, but would have preferred green. It's also a good twelve inches clear of the wall, putting it right next to the pavement, which seemed a little poorly planned, and makes reversing into my drive a *little* trickier.

    However, all of this pales into insignificance when compared to the consistent 60Mbps I'm now getting, being 20 feet from the cabinet :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: One appeared outside my house...

      That's what I was going to say, who cares what network gear looks like, as long as it does a good job!

      I guess if you accidentally total it a couple of times with the car, they might learn and move it a bit if it's at all possible. Hopefully it's made of something softer than your car!

      In these here parts we had a "flying" car that had just ricocheted (is that the word?) heavily off a stupidly-driven hatchback at a crossroads, which then was caught by a ditch (excellent slowing down zone with big bushes to help), but not before it had walloped our power junction cabinet outside. Luckily (for us) that is made of heavy galvanised steel and concrete! I was mildly scuffed but ok, I think the door needed adjusting ;)

      The Nissan Almera, already a short car, that had caused the accident, by going full-throttle into the driver's door of the other car, was considerably further shortened, incidentally new-ish Skoda Octavias- dear Lord they are tough, driver's door a bit restyled but clearly the beams in it, and the sills below it had done a good job. Seems they have some kind of accident-triggered engine mount failsafes as well though, that one wasn't going anywhere afterwards, I think the idea is to drop the motor on the ground rather than in your lap :P

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Why?

    With the growth of mobile devices, wouldn't it make more sense to concentrate on fibre to the pole, and providing good Wireless networking (3G, 4G & WiFi)? OK, businesses and some heavy-users would still want fibre to the building, but for most a fast wireless connection would be preferable.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Local councils being obstructive? Well, that's rich!

    The local authority set up is there to provide a way to allow for considered review to take place on anything that involves the building of structures in the public domain. An increasing problem, however, is one where dissatisfied people, corporates included, then try to short-circuit or play the system by involving central government who ignore the views given to the local authority. They will either then involve some vested interest such as a QUANGO or just get some secretary of state to give an uninformed decision, and everyone is happy.

    Except the people that have to live with it.

    This is just another example of corporate lobbying overruling public wishes and opinion.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey, don't sweat it, if they don't want comms, don't give ''em any. They'll soon learn (maybe).

    Thay'll be screaming for it eventually if Tarquin or Jolyon can't get to twitter Hello-mag--style on their iPads.

    Don't the glorious Free Markets rely on demand? Why should the public purse force organised infrastructure "supply" on these ungrateful retards. Ignore them, give it to the rest that want it!

    I'm sure the cosy "historic" features they probably lovingly prize and demand historic listed-building style legal status for, like telephone boxes and cast iron Royal Mail pillarboxes, and the old blue Police Boxes, were once seen as modernistic eyesores. Like the lovingly converted Satanic Mills that some of them probably live in. You know, where low-paid weavers used to lose their hearing in.

    Like St. Paul's Cathedral was. It had a wall round it so people couldn't see it until it was too late. Kind of like how they build prison extensions now ;)

    I'm betting they didn't have the guts to tell the constabulary to "eff off" in the old days when one of the blue Police Boxes was needing to be built nearby. Plus folks in those days generally had respect for others, not just mindless individualism.

    Heck, some NIMBYs still try to paint pillarboxes their favourite colour until they get busted for messing with corporate property without permission.

    They're called "conservative" for a reason, that's because they don't like change, especially if it involves other people getting a competitive advantage over them in society, especially a technological one. Good heavens, it might cause some social mobility, gosh! Perish the thought! I mean, necessary to say in public that is what they believe in, but actually, we know how it really is, eh?

    They are living in a fake, imagined, past. Steam trains weren't always "cute".

    Oooh was I a bit harsh. Oops. :P

  11. Christian Berger

    So... vital to the nation?

    I can understand that they try to push through such "cabinets" since they solve a serious problem threatening the country. A bit of inconvenience can be expected.

    But why don't they go a step further and nationalize the telecoms? I mean currently you have ISPs which don't seem to want to upgrade their networks. You have ISPs with network congestion, not only at the peak hour, but also during the day. Yet Internet is not really cheaper than at places where networks are properly designed.

    So cut all the bloat and bureaucracy of a commercial company and nationalize it. Just declare fibre to every home as a national goal. Come on, you have been able to bail out banks. That was a massive undertaking. Re-wiring your country is cheap compared to that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So... vital to the nation?

      You mean like in the old days when we had an effective, organised telecoms system, which was generally backed up by the Govt if it wanted to do a big project properly, and told objectors to get lost?

      (on the negative side they didn't like you to put in your own handsets, although that changed eventually)

      Plus, serious research, and the first computers. Look up Tommy Flowers.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Flowers

      http://www.h2g2.com/entry/A1002420/conversation/view/F118706/T259864

      Thomas "Tommy" Harold Flowers, MBE (22 December 1905 – 28 October 1998) was an English engineer. During World War II, Flowers designed Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer, to help solve encrypted German messages.

      Yes, it was secret, and ran hot as the tubes were considered to be very reliable as long as it never got powered down....

      "The COLOSSUS, becuase of its components, generated a lot if heat and most operators (who were mostly women) had to work in their underwear. (Remember this was the 1940s) Often the room was used for drying wet laundry. "

  12. John Styles

    Back of the queue

    BT (or rather the subcontractors of the subcontractors of their subcontractors) put a giant green wardrobe in the middle of a narrow path blocking it from people wheeling push-chairs / wheelchairs etc. and blocking the view towards the main road from the shared drive of a few houses. After some complaining (by me and the people whose view was blocked) it was removed. Clearly we are now at the bottom of the list as one has yet to reappear in the more sensible location by the strange Post Office green box into which things for postmen to deliver are put.

    I cannot say that I care personally, I don't quite see the need for something faster than my 4 MB/s link, but maybe some people have unusually refined / high bandwidth porn needs.

  13. geekyscottyuk
    Go

    You know what. Screw the design (within reason) of the new FTC boxes. I'd be happy with one of those planted in my living room if it means getting above 1 meg / 200 kbps up speeds!

    As for laying cable through private land, well yes I would have to say that some negotiation would be required, perhaps with the caveat that if land owners don't want the cable laid on their land, then they should not, necessarily be entitled to lovely fast broadband speeds.

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like