Can't imagine many banana republics queuing up for that. Most have developing countries with minimal fixed line infra have jumped straight to mobile and Voip...but you never know.

Ass the scrappie says, how much does it weigh.

There will be some demand for the old equipment - mainly for spares.


The electronics will certainly be recycled and the metals extracted - BT will see some revenue but the processing costs are high. The big revenue stream will come as they recover the large underground cables which can be pulled out in tong lengths and sold on for the copper. Various estimates around for the value of the copper although most are based on new prices rather than scrap.

Presumably the way to address EO lines is to stick a couple of cabinets outside the exchange?

In reply to a post by heathrow:

Presumably the way to address EO lines is to stick a couple of cabinets outside the exchange?

FTTC (ie cabinets on street) and FTTP are fed from the same fibre network originating from a GEA Headend exchange. This is not likely to be your “local” exchange, which serves the EO lines. It’s a common misconception.

In reply to a post by heathrow:

Presumably the way to address EO lines is to stick a couple of cabinets outside the exchange?

Yes.
They even do (or did) this on smaller exchanges without fibre services.

It really is the best/easiest place to install a new cabinet. All the copper meets there anyway. There's usually power. If no fibre for miles, there's usually ducting linking the exchange to the Head-End.

It's only useful for Exchange Only lines close enough to the exchange though.

I'm not sure how much FTTC is being installed now.
The preferred upgrade for EO lines will be FTTP if possible.

Most of the exchanges that make sense to put an FTTC cabinet outside will probably have 1 by now.

witchunt

Under 'normal' circumstances the scrap value is positive for BT, scrap merchants pay BT quite well to remove it from site. at odd times scrap value drops ( pandemic) and this is not true, at others it goes through the roof and it is a veritable gold mine!

I would think that the ADSL kit is also worth quite a bit due to the increased rare earth content certainly the original generations were when they were replaced in 2012-2015.

Done by sample assay, generic weight and then scrap frims bid for the pleasure of removing it. Can be done by auction highest bid wins or in a big programme spread out to use all the capacity.

When BT did the first major recoveries it used ALL the specialist scrap capacity in the UK. Then had to spread the programme so the scrap merchants could cope ( depressed the price as well!) .

Usually they are spread around the streets as this gives
a, better speeds and
b, you can't have that many cabinets in one place.

Many London exchanges have 1000s of EO lines so a lot of Cabs required.

Chelsea was a trial of sorts for this when is was closed.

Indeed. Like any good farmer knows, you don't take all your scrap to the merchant when the price is low, you sit on it and wait.

Obviously London is a special case in terms of density, but do you know how was it tackled in Chelsea? Presumably the old exchange doesn't have a carpark full of FTTC cabs.