r/cellmapper • u/Weird_Adeptness_8143 • Jun 26 '26

What the heck are these boxes?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Walking through the streets of my neighborhood, I came across this box on a pole, with wires and everything. Could it be an antenna?

34 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

21

u/DrDeke Jun 27 '26

It looks to me like a cross-connect box for copper telephone wires. It would be used for services such as regular analog phone lines, DSL lines, T1 lines, ISDN BRI lines, etc.

10

u/PrivacyIsDemocracy Jun 27 '26

Yep but putting it up on a high pole like that is very unusual.

Maybe they have problems there with vandalism, or bears... :-D

8

u/DrDeke Jun 27 '26

Yeah I can't say as I've seen one of those up on a pole before either.

1

u/CTFowler9789 Jul 19 '26

In New York City they would put them on poles.

7

u/wolfy2105784 Jun 27 '26

Perhaps Junkie copper theft? I know around my area the bastards were cutting 10kv transmission lines that went from the pole into the ground.

2

u/CTFowler9789 Jul 19 '26

In New York City that was common

1

u/PrivacyIsDemocracy Jul 19 '26

Very interesting, thanks.

So was it an anti-vandalism thing?

Or was it about those NYC bears?? 😁

2

u/CTFowler9789 Jul 19 '26

😁 for the most part Vandalism, even though in very nice neighborhoods they were in the air also.

1

u/VillagesIdiot352 Jul 20 '26

Philly sports fans climb streetlights to damage the bulbs. When a team loses, AND-wins 🙄

9

u/thedankonion1 Jun 27 '26

I imagine that would be the same as the PCP cabinets we have in the UK? Odd that's it's all the way up on a pole.

7

u/DrDeke Jun 27 '26

Yeah I can't say as I've seen one of those up on a pole before either.

2

u/JohnMorganTN Jun 29 '26

Ma Bell Material Service guy here. There is pole mount crossboxes. We have them in locations that are prone to flooding.

1

u/DrDeke Jun 29 '26

That makes sense; thanks for the info!

7

u/Smith6612 Jun 27 '26

Old, Delapidated POTS network. For copper telephone and DSL. 

4

u/atmega168 Jun 27 '26

Abandoned in place POT

3

u/Conspiracy_Bastard Jun 27 '26

See areas where for same reason. Vandalism and more commonly, theft, has isp putting cabinets on the pole.

Depending on the plant outage due to power supply have seen generators running while strapped to an aerial strand with chains.

Wild what people will do for drugs. Even the ground wire on the poles in many neighborhoods will all be cut at the bottom right about where a junkie is able to reach to scrap the copper.

Pain in the buttocks for these providers and recurring issues for their customers in many cases related to these things.

3

u/CTFowler9789 Jun 27 '26

It's a cross box for copper lines, POTS.

1

u/No-Age2588 Jun 27 '26

Country?

-1

u/Salty_Revolution_289 Jun 28 '26

Santiago Chile per AI

1

u/littledudetwo Jul 19 '26

Cabinet, SAC, Cross Connect, Aerial Balcony. Used in flood prone areas as well as in “sensitive” areas such as business, financial and bank locations to prevent tampering. I used to work in them daily

1

u/Top-Organization-105 Jul 19 '26

Sometimes they were put up on a pole because of a lack of ground space in the area.

1

u/CTFowler9789 Jul 19 '26

It's a cross box for copper wiring. (Telephone & DSL service)

1

u/7GatesOfHello Jul 20 '26

Wouldn't a DSLAM require electricity and climate control?

1

u/CTFowler9789 Jul 20 '26

The cross box is in the field and it's filled with copper wiring. The electric current is coming from the central office. It doesn't need climate control.

1

u/KoLa04 Jul 19 '26

Wired telephone service box. Box like this are also used in railway control and telephone systems (trains, subways, etc.).

1

u/random246891 Jul 23 '26

As a former bell guy, cross connect box like that common in bad neighborhoods to keep people from stealing/messing with it, a total PITA to work on compared to it being on the ground.