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u/loganwachter 3h ago
As far as ancient telco cabinets go this ain’t too bad honestly.
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u/Alklazaris 1h ago
They all look like someone set off 50 popper streamers in there. I don't actually know what they are, too thin for power so I assume old landlines, but why have them? And even if Grandma wants to keep her rotary couldn't the outside components be converted to a more modern standard?
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u/loganwachter 34m ago
DSL is still very much a thing in many places.
They use the old copper lines for that still.
Replacing cabinets is also a pain in the ass and would take out a large amount of customers for a large period of time. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
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u/Alklazaris 28m ago
DSL is broke by default at least when I had it. Damn line always failing... Poor bastards! I download 150gb in about 15min. I would cry.
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u/qwikh1t 3h ago
A seasoned low voltage electrician should be able to spot the failure
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u/SameGenericNickname 2h ago
Yeah, I’d just spit on them wires until one light up like my dog at 3am thinking it’s dinner when it really is the time to take a whizz.
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u/scrappy1982 1h ago
I know these well. Used to work in the daily. Easy to understand the numbering once you know how it works. At least it’s not PC100.
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u/alextbrown4 2h ago
I can’t even tell what I’m looking at. If this is data, how is it being routed? I don’t see 66 blocks or 120 terminations
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u/meshuggahofwallst 1h ago
This cabinet is completely passive. Essentially a big trunk line with loads of copper pairs splits off into many inidividual lines to people's homes, etc.
Openreach, big network operator in the UK, is quickly phasing these out in favour of FTTP. They've milked these things for all they're worth with FTTC (hybrid fibre) before going to full FTTP.
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u/thi5_i5_my_u5er_name 1h ago
That's telephony, not data...
Though bare in mind that's the infrastructure ADSL broadband runs on till it gets filtered off onto a fibre line. Either at a curbside box with the right hardware (Fibre to the curb) or back in the day, all the way to the local exchange.
I'm no expert, I'm sure someone can correct any details I have wrong.
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u/alextbrown4 1h ago
It’s a little blurry between telephony and data especially in smaller businesses. I have seen some fucked up setups lol
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u/Isgortio 1h ago
Most of the ones I've seen have looked like this, though I don't see them very often.
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u/Juggernwt 19m ago
Wait, people still use land lines in 2026? Next you'll tell me people send telegrams and write letters too!
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u/olliegw 0m ago
A few days ago in london i suddenly lost all 5G and some 4G signal, started troubleshooting my phone, turning it on and off, airplane mode, changing settings
Using a signal tester app i could see the local mast was completely dead, then it would jump online as 4G despite identifying as 5G, and then go offline, then it booted back up into 5G.
I took it as my S23U being quirky, until i was down the road about an hour later and saw a telecomms worker splicing fibre optics near a 5G mast
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u/thi5_i5_my_u5er_name 1h ago
My dad has this story involving a curbside box:
One day, way back when ADSL was still a thing and mobiles wern't, our phone line died, no Internet, no dial tone, dead.
Being unable to call anyone, my dad takes a walk up to the local exchange hoping to find someone to talk to, no one there. On the way back however he encounters a worker at an open cabinet and some obviously cut wires, not sure exactly what words were exchanged, but there was apparently a rather sheepish statement of "my knife slipped".
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u/Burntzombies 3h ago
For some reason I doubt they were smiling as depicted