What sort of tit builds non-bird bird boxes? Vodafone Vodafone is installing mobile cell sites in bird boxes, although our feathered friends will not be allowed inside. The company has form in providing improved coverage for avians, with special care taken to look after nesting falcons. The new bird box is a signal repeater, something only the licenced networks are allowed to …
The roof of my car bares testimony to the throughput of the local pigeons, spectacular when compared to Vodaphone or O2.
The quicker this is rolled out the better, but with the rate rural pub are closing, there won't be many left. Local community centres, clubs and schools would be a better bet.
I'd also bet that you'll need more than one in each village. Perhaps this could be the saviour of rural phone boxes.
"Also, why does it have to look like a *bird* box, surely a plain wooden box would blend in just as well?"
I guess the logic is that (a) we're sufficiently used to seeing "bird boxes" that another one won't look out of place, (b) they'll be able to sell people on the idea of being paid to have one on the side of their houses because, cynically, it looks like they're being nature-friendly, and (c) they'll be less likely to attract "unwelcome" attention if casual observers don't realise what they are.
An informative reply, thanks. In my area, rural churches tend to be small, centered in town for a sense of closeness, and the congregations tend towards fundamentalism(not tech-friendly). The idea of repeaters on a church is therefore less intuitive, but more fun.
Churches have long doubled as antenna towers. They are usually the tallest building for some distance around, and are already built and connected to power and phone lines. It's cheaper to rent a cupboard at the top of the tower than to construct and cable a purpose-built mast.
At a church where I was once a bell-ringer, Vodafone (or their contractors) made such a mess of the tower with their installation that our tower secretary drafted a letter to them that concluded "Could it be that Vodafone have succeeded where Cromwell and the Vikings failed?"
I suspect that the clergy may have toned the letter down before sending it.
The tower nearly wrecked a horrible vengeance on an antenna contractor who didn't follow the instructions to contact the ringers before working in the bellchamber instead of just letting themselves in; they went under the tenor (the heaviest bell, in this case weighing about a ton) while it was "up" (poised ready to swing down).
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