Reminiscent of the obelisk in ‘2001 a Space Odyssey,’ the green cabinet in the image above looks lost and forlorn. Apart from the number 13 stenciled on its side nothing else gives a clue as to what it is, and why it’s there. There, being on Burghwallis Lane nearby the ‘Dower House.’ And it arrived, plonked on the verge early last year.
It should be ‘buzzing’ as the electronics bounced around inside and ultimately it should be squirting megabytes down bits of copper wire to bring a substantial upgrade in the broadband speed and reliability to Burghwallis. For this green box, or cabinet in OpenReach speak marks the latest thrust of modern technology into the village. This box is the next terminal of fibre cable to run from the Askern exchange to a village that waits and waits.
This missing link, however, remains dormant and unlinked. The OpenReach guys have yet to switch on cabinet 13. Thus we are left struggling with broadband speeds reaching the dizzy speeds of 2mbps – as long as it’s not raining or after 4pm. As we have stated before this speed is amongst the slowest in the land and struggling to operate at what is 20 per cent of the governments’ minimum guideline speed.
When the lights do go on we can’t expect a massive increase in broadband speed and bandwidth. The fibre will stop at cabinet 13 and switch over to the ancient copper wire that connects us from the house to the cabinet. Some pundits have indicated an improved speed up to 4 – 6 mbps something only the quantum physics guys would notice.
Then again a further rumour, possibly fueled by a magnificent burst of wishful thinking, implied that the fibre cable will be further extended Westwards along Grange Lane to another new cabinet, reducing the copper link still further. But in the meantime the best advice would be to keep the string attached between your baked bean tins as tight as possible.