Company seeks community support for new utility boxes
By: John Upton
December 16, 2008
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| Above ground: AT&T would like to house technology that supports its U-verse service on public property at about 850 locations throughout The City. (AP file photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — AT&T is pitching the promise of “next generation” Internet and television services for San Franciscans in an effort to win support for unpopular plans to bolt hundreds of 4-foot high utility boxes onto sidewalks and other rights-of-way throughout The City.
Specific locations have not been identified for most of the 850 planned metal boxes, but they would be built close to existing AT&T utility boxes, planning department documents show.
Additionally, some of AT&T’s existing boxes would be expanded, and some would be moved from utility poles to footpaths.
The new equipment would house technology to support the company’s U-verse service, which already provides 20 megabit-per-second, faster service to around 200 Californian cities, according to company spokesman Gordon Diamond.
The technology inside the boxes would support Internet protocol-based television, telephone and web services, he said, adding that installing the boxes above-ground keeps equipment dry and accessible.
San Francisco Beautiful, a city nonprofit, has called on the company to follow the example of Comcast, the cable and Internet service provider, and install its boxes on private property, but Diamond dismissed that suggestion.
“Our equipment has always been placed in the public rights-of-way,” Diamond said. “Our new cabinets must be located close to our existing cabinets.”
This is not the company’s first attempt to receive approval for the utility boxes.
During a July Board of Supervisors meeting, the telecommunications giant withdrew its proposal to install the boxes, and pledged to submit a new plan, after lawmakers said they planned to order the Planning Department to conduct a full investigation into the impacts of the proposal.
The department had originally ruled that approval of the proposal would not require completion of an environmental impact report — a process required by California law for all major projects.
At a meeting attended by more than 60 speakers, many affiliated with neighborhood groups, the supervisors indicated they would overrule the Planning Department’s decision.
Opponents to the utility boxes say they are too big, would be visually unappealing, and would attract graffiti and illegal advertisements.
Although the company has not yet released a revised proposal, in recent weeks AT&T has held community meetings to talk about the utility boxes, and feedback gathered during the meetings will be used to refine the company’s upgrade plans, according to Diamond, who said he didn’t know when a new application to install the utility boxes would be filed.
Two final workshops are scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the Northern Police Station and 7 p.m. Wednesday at Fort Mason Center Building C, Diamond said.
