They're sprouting like mushrooms. Near every traditional green AT&T interconnection box sprouts a 2nd nearby box with a VRAD. The VRAD box is sometimes across the street, but always nearby.
Apparently there's a cross connect cable to the VRAD. When someone signs up they find the wire in the old box, and wire it over to VRAD. If the customer discontinues U-Verse and switches to a competitive ISP, the cross connect wire is removed.
The question is why? Why can't AT&T design a new version of the switch box that terminates all incoming (from CO) wires, and outgoing (to homes) onto electronic switches. Now a flip of a switch could enable U-Verse (and disable competitive ISPs). It just seems like the wiring would be so much easier... what am I missing?
One box, electronic switching, easy expansion.
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