IS talks about fibre to the premise trials

Why not do a survey to find out if customers would be willing to pay some of the cost in return for cheaper monthly line rental?

I'm already paying nearly R7000 a year just for line speed so might consider paying that upfront for the year if I get say 2 years free connectivity
 
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It may cost R20,000 simply to get the fibre from the curb to a customers’ house,” said Nourse.
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If I can get a 10mbit fiber connection comparable to ADSL montly pricing to my house, I'd pay the R20k installation fee tomorrow. No wait, skip that, I'd go to the bank IMMEDIATELY, get out R20k in cash and drive to my nearest IS office. I don't care if that R20k is used for installation or as a bribe. So if there's any IS employees reading this... your move :)

So according to IS, I've just removed the major constrant for me getting FTTH - what's the next biggest problem, and I'll see if I can help there too!
 
Thats where a contract come into play. If you sign a 24month contract which means they will in 2 years time get their money back on top of the bandwidth costs as well, more people will be willing to go that route, not everyone can just for out 20k on the spot.
 
Maybe we should just do what they do in Japan - and that is string the fiber along existing utility poles instead of trenching. Ugly as sin though, but it does get the job done fast.
 
20k covers how many meters ? just wondering as from the nearest arterial with fiber to my home is 530 meters and I'm sure others along this route would also opt in
 
Johand said:
Maybe we should just do what they do in Japan - and that is string the fiber along existing utility poles instead of trenching. Ugly as sin though, but it does get the job done fast.
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Yup, they do this in USA as well, AFAIK most the Verizon FiOS is installed like this. Here's a nice blog about someone who got his FiOS, with pics of it on the poles ... http://www.bricklin.com/fiosinstall.htm ... who cares if it's ugly, you'll be inside consuming whatever comes over your new shiny fiber :)
 
Trenching costs are between R200 and R1000 a meter depending on the type of trench. :D

You can work out how much it is going to cost to get it to your house! :p
 
Garyvdh said:
Trenching costs are between R200 and R1000 a meter depending on the type of trench. :D
You can work out how much it is going to cost to get it to your house! :p
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They can borrow my garden boy for a week. It will cost them nothing :)

They actually did this in Norway or Sweden - you could reduce your install costs by digging your own trench; I guess that manual labour is pretty expensive there, though.
 
Most suburbs have an active ratepayer's association that covers things like security etc. for the suburb.

If the fibre suppliers were really serious they could do a quick survey of the suburb as a whole, then put in a proposal (to the ratepayer's association) for FTTH for the suburb using a sliding scale based on the number of households that sign up.

It would probably take less than a day to prepare the proposal ...
 
elvis_presley said:
Yup, they do this in USA as well, AFAIK most the Verizon FiOS is installed like this. Here's a nice blog about someone who got his FiOS, with pics of it on the poles ... http://www.bricklin.com/fiosinstall.htm ... who cares if it's ugly, you'll be inside consuming whatever comes over your new shiny fiber :)
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Damn straight, i've been wondering the same thing myself. They should run the fiber above ground where possible.
 
then again being IS they throttled if your are in the top 10%, so no thanks.
 
rrh said:
Most suburbs have an active ratepayer's association that covers things like security etc. for the suburb.

If the fibre suppliers were really serious they could do a quick survey of the suburb as a whole, then put in a proposal (to the ratepayer's association) for FTTH for the suburb using a sliding scale based on the number of households that sign up.

It would probably take less than a day to prepare the proposal ...
Click to expand...

I doubt they even have to go to all that trouble - if they provided some kind of pricing guidance, I'm sure that the ratepayer's associations would have enough informed members to get it onto their agenda and approach IS. I know for a fact I'd find out where my ratepayer's association was and lobby them if there was a chance I could bring FTTH to my area.

In addition to this, the residents could probably do a lot of the work; I'm pretty sure if someone came and marked out the area, a large percentage of the residents would get their gardener to dig the trench past their house.
 
I'll be moving into an estate where we can only get poor Vodacom signal. It would be super if they can bring in FTTX into the estate. I would most certainly be opting into such a option if available.
 
I would dig my trench for my connection to reduce costs. They should release a DIY KIT because people of SA need to save bucks to buy beer
 
R20 000 / 24 = R830 + R400.00 pm for Fibre uncapped = R1230.00 per month

Seems a bit out of reach for most people and that R400.00 is just pulled out of my bum and might be way to low...not sure. Could work in your la di da areas like Sandton I guess.
 
Fibre to the curb will reduce my copper length to less than 100m. With VDSL2 we can should get some decent speeds. It does not have to be a all or nothing approach.
 
ocleroux said:
R20 000 / 24 = R830 + R400.00 pm for Fibre uncapped = R1230.00 per month
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Remember they're laying this fiber for the long-term. It'd be nice for them if they could get you to pay it in 2 years, but they don't need that - there's no reason that fiber won't be used for 10-20 years if they keep providing decent service, so you can divide that R20k by 120 or 240.
 
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