Is this an FTTC cabinet?

My exchange, Hove, has been FTTC enabled for a couple of years, but the expected availability date for my phone line has been retreating at a rate of 3 months per quarter for most of that time. Yes, I know that never happens, but...

To be fair to OR they've had some planning problems as I'm in a Conversation Area.

Recently, a new cabinet turned up nearby. Whoo-hoo! This must be it! But wait, the cab looks like nothing I've seen before (or on RobertoS' cabinets page). The other FTTC cabs I've found have been the large Huaweis.

Roberto's cabinets page

So, can anyone identify this cab? Is it just a PCP upgrade, or is it likely to contain be FTTC?

Nearby cabinet

Looks a bit similar to some of the cable TV cabs round my way.

Lock looks nothing like existing Openreach range.

So non Openreach is my bet, tried seeing where any obvious pavement digging goes. It should link to a power supply, and existing street cab if it is Openreach FTTC

Looks like a VM one to me, though I haven't seen that sort. I'm partly going by the format of the number on it, which is VM style.

If it is, there will be quite a few around that may be similar, or without the vents, all with similar numbers. VM cabs are much closer together than BT PCPs.

Thanks for your wise counsels, guys. You're right: it's not OR, it is Virgin Media.

I went back for another gander, and if I'd looked *down* when I took the pic, I'd have seen the manhole access cover in front of it, clearly marked "CATV".

So I'm expecting my FTTC availability date (30 09 2012) to experience another spin round the Time Vortex and zip three months into the future any day now.

RobertoS: please feel free to put the pic on your very useful site.

In reply to a post by gaffe77:

Thanks for your wise counsels, guys. You're right: it's not OR, it is Virgin Media.

Can you say where in the country you are? Might help us locate which former cable company installed it.

VM is actually a collection of 20+ companies, and they all worked in different ways. We have nothing like that here but lots of VM cabinets.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Can you say where in the country you are?

I'm in Brighton, the OR CO is in Hove, actually. The pictured VM cab is about 50m from my location.

Original cabling was by NTL some time after 1989, though I can't remember exactly when.

The cabinet pictured really is a new one, they've even remade the concrete footing. There was something there before, but it was green and, I'm pretty sure, smaller. Silver VM cabs seem to be an innovation. I haven't seen any others around yet, but I'm not sure how often they get replaced.

Smaller and much smaller cable cabs are scattered around the streets in about the same shade of green as OR use, though usually even tattier.

Occasionally they're seen with the (imho flimsy) doors hanging off, possibly after an assault by an enraged VM customer who will cry on my shoulder about it in the pub should I unwisely answer any question with "oh, you know, techie stuff". The new one looks like it's up to withstanding someone who's been on hold for two hours before the atrocious music is interrupted by a click-click, followed by the dialling tone.

Edited by gaffe77 (Sat 08-Sep-12 01:10:20)

One of our cabinets literally always had its doors wide open. It was a large cabinet. Virgin have now replaced it with one of these silver ones and I've seen them working on it.

In reply to a post by gaffe77:

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Can you say where in the country you are?

I'm in Brighton, the OR CO is in Hove, actually. The pictured VM cab is about 50m from my location.

Original cabling was by NTL some time after 1989, though I can't remember exactly when.

I thought Nynex was the original cableco in Brighton. I remember there were a lot of complaints about the locations of some of their cabinets because they were placed right on the edge of the curb.

I know 'someone' who had the contract for some of the early planning surveys in Hove.

What cab are you on?

Edited by partial (Sat 08-Sep-12 22:26:55)