Uploaded on 2014-12-07 by amacphee

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14179836257076764.jpg The person in the hi-vis jacket here is from BT Openreach, the part of BT that deals with wholesale phone and fibre optic cabling. These cabinets allow the copper and fibre optic network to be accessed and maintained by Openreach, as the network is buried within inner London (as opposed to strung up on telephone poles). While avoiding telephone poles in densely populated areas is positive, in that it ensures cleaner sight lines and is safer, it is also more expensive to bury cabling and maintaining it becomes somewhat harder. These cabinets are a visual symbol of the entirety of the network which is crucial for our city to survive. A side observation on infrastructure resilience. These cabinets are easy to knock over if hit with a vehicle, and this happens sometimes. This then can eliminate internet access from a significant area, affecting businesses and residents. Installing the cabinet into a container which then retracts into the pavement (and can be easily pulled out by maintenance staff) would make this bit of infrastructure more resilient.