Some find AT&T cable boxes in Alameda unsightly - Inside Bay Area

Some find AT&T cable boxes in Alameda unsightly - Inside Bay Area

"Alameda brings in a lot of business because of the charming period houses and associated aesthetics. Homeowners spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore and keep up these houses not just for themselves, but for all of Alameda," said Alameda Avenue resident Pat Payne, who wrote the Journal about a box to be placed there. "The City Council and AT&T seem to be ignoring this; there is something terribly wrong with this lack of sensitivity."

The company has the legal right to place the cabinets in the public right-of-way on sidewalks, for example, but its deal with the city says they have to try to come to an agreement with neighbors over the placement of cabinets if there is a dispute. If the neighbors and the company can't resolve the placement of a cabinet, the city could ask AT&T to put it elsewhere.

Residents and business owners who are within 300 feet of where the cabinets are being installed will receive letters from AT&T detailing the work to take place and containing a photo of what the cabinet will look like. The letters contain a phone number people can call if they have questions about or problems with the placement of a cabinet.

Tustin’s turn: Why AT&T U-verse isn’t happening here yet - Alt+Save with the Gadgetress - OCRegister.com#more-17511

Tustin’s turn: Why AT&T U-verse isn’t happening here yet - Alt+Save with the Gadgetress - OCRegister.com#more-17511:

"The city has other issues it wants resolved before greenlighting the rest of the project, said Elizabeth Binsack, Tustin’s communicty development director, who invited me to view the presentation given about AT&T and given to the Planning Commission and City Council.

“I gotta tell you, the sites we looked at in our walk, some were conflicting with line of sight, some were in the spot of trees and fire hydrants. I don’t think they looked at those sites at all. We did,” Binsack said.

Other issues:

AT&T's plan to install 93 utility cabinets in Tustin included underneath this tree. City officials stand next to mock AT&T box. Photo from city of Tustin.

1. AT&T’s unwillingness to move these boxes to less obtrusive areas, such as the back of the park instead of smack dab in the middle, or off the edge of the sidewalk and into the landscaping (see photo on right and below). ”We haven’t heard back from AT&T,” she said.

2. U-verse isn’t as advanced as Verizon FiOS, which instead of offering fiber optic technology to the middle of a neighborhood, builds the fiber all the way to the house. (”What if we end up with 93 boxes that are obselete?” Binsack wondered.)

3. Safety, not for the box, but the public. ”Forgetting the issue of safety (of the box), but personal safety. In Houston, a U-verse box blew up. It melted the guy’s garage,” she said, handing me the articles to prove it."

Alderman Doesn't Like Sight Of 'U-Verse' Boxes

Journal & Topics Newspapers Online: "Alderman Doesn't Like Sight Of 'U-Verse' Boxes

Representatives from AT&T at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, July 13 answered questions about installing the required boxes for the U-Verse cable system proposed for Park Ridge.

The company's legal department stated they believe they do not have to pay building permit fees for the 36 connection boxes it needs to serve the city. Review and permit fees would total $36,000. However, the company offered the city $1,500 per box it could spend on landscaping around the boxes, an offer of $54,000. In addition, going forward, AT&T will pay the city 6% of its gross revenue from Park Ridge residents.

Ald. Jim Allegretti (4th) spoke against the connection boxes that are frequently located in municipality parkways, calling them 'unsightly and unsafe.' He also asked if residents could request the box be placed in the rear yard instead of the front."

More protests about AT&T's U-Verse deployments: Those ugly boxes - FierceTelecom

More protests about AT&T's U-Verse deployments: Those ugly boxes - FierceTelecom: "Citizens in North Carolina and Indiana are petitioning their local governments to stop AT&T's from installing large Video Ready Access boxes for its U-Verse service in their neighborhoods. The citizens claim the boxes are noisy and unsightly, and that the installation process creates a mess. David and Wendy Hostetler, of Belmont, N.C., hired lawyer Jim Windham to argue that the box installation would detract from the historic quality of the neighborhood. AT&T stopped installation on that box, according to the Hostetlers. The Belmont Public Works Committee will explore the U-Verse installation at a meeting this week.

In a separate incident, the Evanston City Council (Ind.) voted to issue a statement to AT&T to ask the telco to cease installations of the boxes in the city until it could form an oversight committee. Evanston residents had complained about the noise and prominent size of the boxes."

AT&T boxes irk Wilmette residents

November 27, 2008
By KEN GOZE kgoze@pioneerlocal.com

Wilmette residents living near new AT&T equipment boxes are protesting the construction of cabinets they say are too large and obtrusive, but village officials say there's nothing they can do to stop the installations after the company won exemptions to state utility regulations to offer a new Internet-based video service.

AT&T has planned 43 'video ready access devices' throughout the village that will serve as junctions between the company's fiber optic system and homes subscribing to U-verse TV, a new service being billed as a high-power alternative to cable television.

Homeowners living near the new installations say they only recently learned about them, and believe the bulky cabinets will damage the appearance of their neighborhoods and diminish property values.
George Vincent, who lives on the corner of Seventh Street and Greenleaf Avenue, said he learned what was happening in recent weeks when he stopped to talk with a contractor installing a 5-foot by 12-foot concrete pad in the parkway near his home. It will ultimately hold a cabinet that is about 5 feet high, 2.5 feet wide and 4 feet long.

'This whole thing really stinks,' Vincent said. 'AT&T has cut some kind of deal in Springfield and I think it's going to devalue my property. It's on the town parkway but at the same token, why couldn't they put it underground or up in the alley where utilities belong?'"

ESCONDIDO: Postcard campaign targets AT&T cable boxes : North County Times - Californian

ESCONDIDO: Postcard campaign targets AT&T cable boxes : North County Times - Californian:

"ESCONDIDO ---- An anonymous postcard campaign in Escondido is urging residents to protest AT&T's ongoing effort to install hundreds of large cable TV boxes across the city.

The postcards describe the boxes as 'enormous' and characterize AT&T as a company that puts profit above community appearance. But AT&T officials said Monday that the postcards contain 'misinformation' and 'scare tactics.'

City officials agreed Monday that the postcards are misleading because they feature photographs of significantly taller boxes than those being installed in Escondido.

It is not known how many residents have received the postcards, but employees in the city clerk's office said they have received roughly 30 phone calls about the cards in recent weeks. The cards urge residents to contact City Hall about the boxes."

Maybe it's just us, but a 48" inch high box is still REALLY BIG! Do you want one in front of YOUR house? OCNA

SF Says, "NO!" To Godzilla Boxes

Utility-box plan hits a snag - Examiner.com: "SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Proponents call it 21st-century technology. Opponents call it 19th-century packaging.

Whatever you call it, it won’t be showing up on your street corner in the form of a refrigerator-size metal box — not yet, at least.

Telecom giant AT&T withdrew its application to place 850 large utility boxes housing fiber-optic technology on sidewalks across The City, a move made after it became clear that a hearing at the Board of Supervisors was not going the company’s way.

The boxes were to have housed technology for the company’s Project Lightspeed, which would bring cable television, broadband Internet and phone service to residents via fiber-optic cables.

Though the idea of rallying some competition with Comcast — the largest cable provider in The City — has proven popular, the boxes have not.

Neighborhood groups whose residents have paid big bucks to force utilities underground on their streets argue that the large boxes would be ugly, hazardous graffiti magnets.

“We have nothing against the new technology,” David Crony, president of the Cole Valley Improvement Association, told supervisors. “But supervisors, this beautiful city and all our plans for improving its streets will be seriously threatened if we sanction the installation of up to 850 of these enormous, industrial-grade boxes on our sidewalks.”"

New Haven Independent: U-Verse Boxes Rattle Neighbors

New Haven Independent: U-Verse Boxes Rattle Neighbors:

"With millions of dollars of equipment at stake, AT&T has vowed to wipe off any graffiti from new utility boxes like this one.

The pledge comes as the city works to combat a graffiti “epidemic” plaguing neighborhoods.
The city wants your help holding the company accountable by reporting any graffiti on the new AT&T equipment called V-rad, or U-verse boxes.

Neighbors across the city have objected to the new additions to their blocks. A woman on Howard Avenue in the Hill grumbled that the box blocked her window view and kept her up at night. An East Rock woman successfully lobbied to get the utility box moved further down Edwards Street so it wouldn’t sit right outside her studio."