Few broadband questions

After reading this forum for a while I have decided to join and ask about a few things that puzzle me. My knowledge of how ADSL works isn't very advanced so I will apologise now if this is simple stuff which should be common knowledge.

Basically I live 1.8km from my local exchange (which is in the town centre) but only about ~50 metres away from a big double door green cabinet on the main road off from my close. The question is, what is the purpose of that box? Why doesn't being metres away from it help my internet speed and connection stability. I'm also in an area which has been missed out by Virgin, in short a hole in the middle of two networks both about a two minute drive either side. Which makes me wonder, if my area gets the BT fibre, will I be missed again the second time round.

The presence of a lot of Openreach vans near me recently makes me think something is being done or looked at but my exchange isn't at the moment on the list of the ones made puplic.

It is a cable junction known as a cross connection point. Basically one or more big bundles of cable go from there back to the exchange, containing many hundreds of pairs of wires. Lots of smaller cables go from the cabinet to the local area and they split of to smaller cables which eventually feed individual properties.
The cabinet is a flexibility point allowing Openreach field techs to connect any line at the exchange to any property connected to that cabinet.

If Fibre to the Cabinet ever comes to your area, you are likely to see better speeds, but the rollout of this could be quite slow, and rural areas may never see it.

In reply to a post by zebedeee:

If Fibre to the Cabinet ever comes to your area, you are likely to see better speeds, but the rollout of this could be quite slow, and rural areas may never see it.

Luckily my area is urban so it could become part of the upgrade at some point. All the exchanges that will be upgraded were revealed in a map posted a few weeks ago. What does AltNet deployments mean? Who is responsible for that pink area through Kent (which is where I live)

My town/location appears to be one of the dark blue dots shown on another map in the 4th phase slightly outside the pink however.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2009/11/12/uk-next-...

Edited by deleted (Thu 24-Dec-09 22:05:36)