It sounds like a science fiction story where UFO's appear at the horizon. But it is plain simple and down to earth. A grey cabin was lifted from a loader and placed on one of ESB's sites in Ringsend. The job was done on the 4th September 2009 during sunny and windy weather; however that was no showstopper for the lift.

ESB Telecoms has a plot of land near the Ringsend generation station there and a high telecommunications mast is located there. On the extra land, adjacent to that structure, ESBT has now placed a cabin that contains equipment for the glass fibre network. It is a spare cabin or SSOU, a Strategic Swap Out Unit. We can easy lift the 10 meter cabin from its foundation and land it anywhere in the country where it might be needed.

The SSOU is part of a larger business continuity plan, where backup equipment can be employed within hours rather then weeks, in case a disaster or mayor accident knocks out one of the many transmission stations in the nationwide fibre network, the NTFON. The transmission stations are crucial in the distribution of local data services to city communities from the nation wide data transport network.

The unit is also a good training object, to test out new equipment and work practices in order to improve the standard of service. For the lift a small crew of people were on site, the crane driver and assistant, the truck driver, a crew from KTL Maynooth for the connections, the photographer and four ESBT staff. Except for the photographer, all are displayed on the group photo. Another job well done, safe and sound.