| It takes larger cabinets to keep up with the larger demands- Capacity - In order to keep up with increasing telephone on the PSTN (public switched telephone network) such as landline customers & increasing trunks to cell towers & also the extreme jump in internet traffic to DSL customers, business data, internet data centers, & huge traffic demands for data at each cell tower from wireless providers, the telephone company is always laying fiber, updating equipment & both growing and building out more telco "remote" boxes.
- Demand - With the consumer & business demand for bandwidth & fast connectivity to the telephone backbone the telephone providers are putting larger boxes in the field to accomodate the latest products from telecom equipment providers such as - high speed optical ADM/Regenerators, with everything from ATM to Switched
Ethernet to IP Platform services, battery backup (for reliability during commercial power failures) as well as room for additional growth.
- Newer equipment always add the new feature benefits
- 1950s - to the 1980s - As with each upgrade to a network such as from an old step by step phone switch moving up to the newer digital switch (like a 5ESS or DMS100 switch) with the upgrade more features were available for the phone company to offer (giving customers more options) such as caller id, ISDN, Touchtone / Digitone, *69, etc... (of which they had to ask the PUC for permission to sell).
- 1990s - to the 200xs - The latest & greatest telco equipment vendors equipment (which is in these boxes larger boxes) carriers the increased capacity for voice (phone service)& data as well as offers more advanced features such as the additional bandwidth for increased switched ethernet (10 gigabit Ethernet), bandwidth capability of IP based video streaming, High speed bandwidths for business/enterprise customer needs and demands, etc....
- Bandwidth Overload
- Then - Back 10 years ago you had people that used to just send basic emails & read simple HTML web pages on the internet.
- Now - We are downloading billions of songs off iTunes, streaming millions of podcasts, Youtube video clips galore, American Idol fans with 20 millions calls to AT&T 800 numbers within 2 hours (believe me I can see the traffic hit those digital switches & toll trunks to AT&T LD), unlimited long distance, streaming videos & calls to hundreds of cell phones from a single cell phone tower (which are fed by the local telephone company to connect to their tandem or carried over to the wireless providers POP).
- Cellular, paging, internet, VOIP - it's all telco in the mix - Just to let you know the local telephone not only carries all it's own landline calls but also carries every cell phone call on both on the side of the caller & called party, every page, point of purchase, bank transaction, credit card, internet traffic, even internet surfing on cable broadband goes back to be carried by the telephone company to get to the telephone backbone.
- Example # 1 - Example of mobile 2 mobile: T-Mobile -> telco -> Cingular.
- Example # 2 - Example of cable internet: Comcast(ic) Broadband -> telco -> AT&T Backbone -> Data Center -> server.
- Extreme - This is extreme & requires extreme actions such as laying fiber & building out telco "remote boxes" to keep up with demand & so what if the newer telco equipment also allows AT&T or Qwest to offer some type of IP based video service & incorporate a set top because your gonna see TV over IP through it's internet portal or
somone elses like youtube since our connection speeds are so much faster.
- Operating a world class network & it's responsibility - Like them or not, agree or disagree, AT&T along with other local telephone companies carry an extremely huge task. If the city is so worried that someone might view some videos over an IP based connection & not get paid their franchise fee then maybe they issue an ordinance telling people not to log onto youtube or yahoo video or download so much off iTunes nor make thousands of calls after American Idol airs because they don't want AT&T to upgrade the network & leave it be in the 1990's.
- City politics - Having a city challenge over the decor, aeshetics, & size of some telco cabinets which will enhance the the communications infrastructure city wide & increase capacity & reliablility which in turn will add value & will definitely cause the cable provider to give customers discounted cable service if they perceive that their customers may opt for an IP based (internet) video service such as say "AT&T Uverse".
- What about the others - I didn't see the city stop Vonage or Skype or the cable company from offering IP based "digital" phone service.
- Those ugly utility cabinets - I feel as if there are other utility company eye sores to balk at such as miles of aerial power cable, telephone poles, ugly transformers boxes, unsightly sewer drains for water run off?
- Vanity - This opposition is about as silly passing an ordinance making all cars with rust on it may be towed by the city away at owners expense because it is unsightly.
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