New cabinet

Anybody know what this cabinet might be?

It's at a "T" junction. On the opposite corner, across a side road, is a group of OR cabinets, including the one my FTTC comes from. It emits a loud fan noise, audible from 20-30m away even to my aged ears, much louder than I've ever heard from an OR cabinet.

It appeared a few months ago. Apart from the laser warning sticker there is no id on the cabinet. I suspect it's to do with an altnet fibre build. The chamber to the right has lids marked "Swish Fibre", which is plausible though you can't always rely on that. But being naive, I thought the "P" in PON meant that a fibre network was passive between the OLT and the ONT. So why would the kit inside this box need a powerful cooling fan?

There will quite likely be a Adtran fibre node (Optical Line Terminal) inside to serve FTTP to Swish customers nearby. Hence the fan noise for cooling.

The passive part means the distribution network is passive. Openreach have the luxury of putting all the active equipment they need in a nice exchange building, the altnets don't, hence this cabinet.

Thanks, that makes sense. I'd kind of got the impression from discussions on here that the OLT is usually located 10s of km away in some nice dry headend exchange, but that's just how OR do it. Because they can. I suppose OR's network is the most discussed on here.

If I ever do end up with FTTP from Swish, which is looking no more likely now than it ever has, I suppose it's reassuring that the thing looks like it's built to withstand a Russian invasion. Unlike some cabs from other network operators I've seen.

Looks like the type Zzoomm is using, I have only seen one, it is on the cycle path, so I pass it going to work and back, it is noisy, I hope they are not going to put them close to people houses, I think some may end up with a hammer inside them to shut them up.

here's Swish's cabinet in Farnham, Surrey - clearly the same design even though it's facing the other direction. It also has chamber covers next to it marked 'Swish Fibre'.

If you want to let me know the location of the cab, either via this thread, or via PM, I can let you know if its one of our cabs.

All the best.

Chris.

Chris has confirmed it is a Swish Fibre box.