"GPO" access panels

Am i right in thinking that the lightish coloured access panels (most seem to be near telepgraph poles) in the pavement with "GPO" on them are access panels for the phone lines and they are where the underground phone lines run between?

GPO seems to stand for General Post Office which was in charge of the Telecoms prior to BT existing.

Yeap

In reply to a post by InQ:

GPO seems to stand for General Post Office which was in charge of the Telecoms prior to BT existing.

Or 'Generally P*ssed Off' which describes their customers

Surely being on the pavement and so many dogs and drunks about, the "off" should be "on"?

Now making me feel old when my first reaction was 'doesn't everybody know that ?' But yes the Post office were indeed the owners of the telephone network, as bad as BT might be I'd hate to imagine what a mess the country's telecoms would be in today if the clowns at RoyalMail were in charge of the infrastructure.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Surely being on the pavement and so many dogs and drunks about, the "off" should be "on"?

What a disturbing thought. The box outside my house gets flooded sometimes