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Muswell Hillbillies force BT to move broadband boxes

BT has been ordered to move 20 of the bulkier new streetside cabinets planned to power its trial of faster broadband, after they offended aesthetic sensibilities in leafy Muswell Hill, north London.

The local council, Haringey, is also arranging for all the boxes to be repainted black rather than their current green, to "blend slightly better with some of the existing street furniture".

The enforced changes follow talks between the BT and the council.

Prompted by complaints from residents of a conservation area in Muswell Hill, in August planning officials told the firm to halt expansion of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) trial, which offers downstream speeds of up to 40Mbit/s.

New sites - some less prominent, some outside the conservation area of six streets around Queen's Avenue - have now been found for about three-quarters of the cabinets, a spokeswoman for Haringey Council told The Register.

Despite the apparent progress, Haringey Council was critical of BT.

"It is most regrettable that the cabinets were designed to be much higher and wider than the smaller telephone cabinets which are typically found on street corners - the newer cabinets are 1.6 metres high whereas the older-style cabinets are 0.9 metres high and not so wide as the new ones," the spokeswoman said.

When it was first ordered to halt the rollout, BT said its new boxes had to be larger to accommodate the extra electronics, backup batteries and cooling required by FTTC technology.

Haringey Council today acknowledged that more equipment was required, but said BT should have tried harder to reduce its aesthetic impact.

"It would have been better if BT had sought advice on a better design before the boxes were installed," it said.

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