Artists Paint ISP Ogi’s Full Fibre Broadband Street Cabinets
Broadband ISP Ogi, which is busy investing £200m to build a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 150,000 premises across South Wales by 2025 (here and here), has teamed-up with a local art gallery – Breakout Gallery – in Haverfordwest to give their street cabinets a rather.. unique look.
A series of artworks, based on the theme of connections, are currently being “installed” by artists on the provider’s street cabinets around Haverfordwest, which are intended to mark the operator’s first year of deployment in the town. Chosen artists each receive a small fee to cover their time and materials, with the exhibition forming part of this summer’s “Breakout Exhibition” in the town.
We rather like the colourful bee pictured above, although other designs may be more likely to divide opinion (as is fairly normal with art).
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In any case, some of the paint being used in the pictures doesn’t look as if it will last very long, so you might have to be quick if you want to spot all the work around the town.
Sarah Vining, Ogi’s Head of Brand and Engagement, said:
“It’s great to see the Ogi cabinets coming to life in this way.
Designed to blend into the background usually, these big blocks of colour are an ideal canvas for creativity, and I’m thrilled we’ve been able to share these spaces with local artists to brighten up our community streets.
Community is at the heart of everything we do here at Ogi, and offering residents and visitors a chance to encounter art around almost every corner is an exciting way to thank people for their patience during our works.”
We should point out that this is by no means the first time that people have used “art” to decorate street telecoms cabinets (example and here), although the mass of unwanted graffiti that tends to pervade such infrastructure – across multiple operators – is often significantly less appealing (the occasional ‘Banksy’ notwithstanding – here). But normally the main reason for re-painting a cabinet is to make it blend better into its local environment.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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This should definitely be more widely adopted. It is in Republic of Ireland.
I think we’d see less crappy graffiti on cabinets then. The conspiracy theory mad people have been spraying cabinets around a few places.
Let’s brighten up the streets with some art.
Perhaps encourage it with mobile masts as well, might reduce nimby-ism a bit…
Saw some “artists” spray anti 5g bio weapon art on one in Somerset. In the blazing sunshine in some weird ironic way, getting more radiation from the sun than the mast they are decorating.
A nice idea! Fully support it as long as it’s not eventually used to push ‘PC’ in some way.
So you are going to be the arbiter of what art should be allowed? Good of you to appoint yourself….
Jim, can you please point out where I suggested that I wish to be the ‘arbiter of what art should be allowed’? From what I can see I never suggested that. I just said I fully support the idea as long as it won’t be used at a future date as a means to push ‘PC’. It sounds to me as if you took offence to the final part of my sentence, which wasn’t my intention.
Best make sure it’s also not used to put MACs then 😉
Nice one there Mark
There’s always at least one swivel banging-on about political correctness and/or wokery… ::facepalm::
“BAN THIS SICK FILTH”, I don’t see why you appear to be offended by such a statement but each to their own I guess. *shrug*
The shrug comes from all who do not the need to shoehorn “political correctness” into everything.
What a bizarre little world you most inhabit… ♂️
It’s a shame that you were unable to clarify why you appear(ed) to be offended. Anyway, I’m not going to continue the discussion from this point as I fear that it’s turning unnecessarily negative.
Try to have a nice day!
Why stop there…..that white wall looks a bit bland .
Bland. This isn’t news.
It is when you’re on a site that is dedicated toward covering the consumer and industry side of broadband, mobile and phone services in the UK. But as I always say, if a story doesn’t interest you, then simply don’t read it and get on with your life :).
Oddly decorating a plain item would be the very opposite of Bland surely ?
Is that the justification you need in order to post this article? You know it’s dull and uninteresting, yet you’ve posted it anyway. I bet you that most people who frequent this site feel the same as I do.
I quite enjoyed this positive post actually.
Mark you’ve got a nice website I regularly visit but the number of extremely negative politicised comments make me question whether I have accidently gone to a very different website.
“Is that the justification you need in order to post this article? You know it’s dull and uninteresting, yet you’ve posted it anyway.”
I don’t find a lot of the stuff that others do “interesting” either (e.g. writing about company accounts and results), but it’s part of the job to ensure we’re covering as much of relevance as possible. It’s the same on every news sites you visit, you won’t find it all interesting or read it all. This is all fairly normal and shouldn’t need explanation.
In this case, though, I also found this to be quite an interesting and fun topic. Different people, different opinions, such is life. But try not to troll too hard, there are more important things in life.
@Mark Jackson, I believe we are both guilty of feeding the Trolls.
Personally I find Football mind numbing, bottom line where possible I avoid it on TV and media, A new football shirt design or indeed who won, lost, moved clubs ad nauseum isn’t ‘news’ either…..To me.
i think it is nice, the problem is, how long will it last until someone spray their rubbish over it?
The newish zzoomm cabinet I pass on the way to work have a load of graffiti on it already. I don’t know what is wrong with people, I really don’t,
These ghastly carbuncles should be adorned with dazzle camouflage
On the Isle of Wight the local authority regards such ‘decoration’ as advertising and thus requires planning permission. Well done Ogi. And well done your local authority for supporting it.
Looks awful, no better than a cabinet with graffiti. Rather have a bland green box.
Agreed.
A “bland” green box with “Fast Fibre is here”? I’m registered blind and having colour added to these is a great help! I’ve walked into a couple at the last minute, damn even got the bruises to show to….
If and when it comes to Tylorstown, I hope they paint them here to… Wales is the place to be different and the place to live to…. And as for Political stuff, the Tory nay Sayers may object to it? Mmmmm, Red paint them all red or Rainbow!