Southampton BT cabinets

Been mapping the BT cabinets around Southampton, or at least the part where I live. Can't hurt to make this available to other people, so here's a URL you can paste into Google Maps

http://home.tlrmx.org/bt/?x=STHMPTN

Markers are numbered with the cabinet number if I was able to discover it

Red markers mean that cabinet shows no sign of getting FTTC
Green markers mean there's definitely FTTC from that cabinet according to Openreach
Blue means it looks like it has or will get FTTC
Yellow means for whatever reason I wasn't sure or couldn't check

Yes I've focused on cabinets for HAMPTON exchange because that's nearest to me, if you live over in Shirley or by the docks this isn't much use (yet?), feel free to go build your own map!

Nice work on the map, you can create on on line map (see mine in my signature), just don't allow editing.

Hmm. I'm generating KML in software, so I don't think I gain anything from using "an on line map" instead. But I might get around to making a page which links each covered exchange and gives the appropriate version of the map embedded in Google Maps. Maybe next week.

Most of what I've discovered while compiling this map either matched my preconceptions or was explained in a forum like this with a quick Google. But a few weird things are left and I'll post separately about those shortly.

Sorry to be thick - how do I paste a URL into Google maps? I'm interested to see what's going on our cabinet! (Hampton 11).

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://home.tlrmx.org...

In reply to a post by marmaladecat99:

Sorry to be thick - how do I paste a URL into Google maps? I'm interested to see what's going on our cabinet! (Hampton 11).

You see the search box in Google maps, where you'd type things like "Eiffel Tower" or "LS30 2BH" ? You can type or paste URLs into that box too. Google Maps will open the URL, and if the URL contains suitable map information (KML format, like I've generated) it will display that.

Anyway, no news on Cabinet 11 as far as I know. So still blue on my map - you'd have to ask somebody with a little more inside info if you want some semblance of why and when..

Very busy recently, should get FTTC of my own next week. Meanwhile I have added a few more cabinets and introduced some new colours, the light blue (cyan) means that fttc-check site says the cabinet is planned to get FTTC at some point in the future, but I saw no sign of it yet. So for these FTTC is probably more distant than for the blue ones (where there's been at least some work done). Purple means something unusual or confusing, those might vanish later.

Thanks.

I'm also waiting on Cab 11, see here.

There were installing new ducting all the way up Grosvenor Road about 6 weeks ago, but it's been quiet since then. I guess they still need to actually lay the fibre though it? Nothing currently on roadworks.org. The cab is powered up, though - you can hear it if you put your ear next to it!

Two stages, black one inch thick tubing with mini tubes inside it is pulled through ducting and then the fibre is blown using a small compressor.

When people invariably say they see the fibre being installed its the big drum of black tubing they see, the fibre blowing can be just one or two people and easy to miss.

Yeah, this really was ducting they were installing - they had the pavement up and were laying what looked like blue PVC pipes, a few inches in diameter.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Two stages, black one inch thick tubing with mini tubes inside it is pulled through ducting and then the fibre is blown using a small compressor.

When people invariably say they see the fibre being installed its the big drum of black tubing they see, the fibre blowing can be just one or two people and easy to miss.

To be fair, people can probably read, and what it says on the reels of the black tubing is "fibre", not "this is a just a tube, but inside it there might be fibre some day, so please don't cut through it when digging up the road". It's all a bit Treachery Of Images, innit?

I'm actually intrigued as to why it's black. Why not a bright colour that will easily stand out for some dude with a JCB and his mind elsewhere? The modern plastic gas mains are bright yellow, which I presume is for this reason.

In reply to a post by tialaramex:

I'm actually intrigued as to why it's black. Why not a bright colour that will easily stand out for some dude with a JCB and his mind elsewhere? The modern plastic gas mains are bright yellow, which I presume is for this reason.

It's because the tubing, for the most part, is run through the existing ductwork with the phone cables not just buried in trenches like most utility ducting/pipework, so it doesn't need to be a bright colour.

And it does have a yellow stripe down it anyway