Best ISP on Octotel, Cape Town

SaffaTechie

SaffaTechie

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Hello

I recently moved and looking for suggestions for the best ISP on Octotel in Cape Town.

Gamer - I need reliable international latency.

Thanks.
 
It's difficult to get really objective answers here due to most people just sticking to who they're with because it's a PITA to change ISPs.

I'm with Cool Ideas and while they're pretty expensive, their support is top notch. They also have an active presence on this forum and they might be a good fit for you if you're primarily interested in latency for gaming - you can check out the forum thread where they're often investing effort in to investigating issues with routes for game servers.

Cool Ideas Fibre ISP – Feedback Thread 6

Intentional seems to be having issues. Hi, are you still experiencing issues in this regard?
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
It depends on the area in Cape Town as I know performances of ISP's in different areas arent the same. In Athlone, Cool Ideas is very good, been using Urban X since July 2024 last year and Im happy with them too
 
fsadulla said:
It depends on the area in Cape Town as I know performances of ISP's in different areas arent the same. In Athlone, Cool Ideas is very good, been using Urban X since July 2024 last year and Im happy with them too
Click to expand...
Different regions in SA might differ e.g. some ISPs use west coast cables for CT and then JHB/PTA/DBN east coast. For the most part all areas in a city should be the same
 
CrypticZA said:
Different regions in SA might differ e.g. some ISPs use west coast cables for CT and then JHB/PTA/DBN east coast. For the most part all areas in a city should be the same
Click to expand...
if you're in Rondebosch or Brackenfell, you will be connecting directly to the FNO's infrastructure in their data centres, but if you're in Strand, your traffic will be running over a City of Cape Town layer 2 service that's picked up at CoCT's data centre in Somerset West, then transported back to Rondebosch. if you're in Paarl or Wellington, chances are the layer 2 is provided by DFA and you are connecting to DFA's POP in the old BOE building in Paarl and from there back to Rondebosch.

It's very difficult for FNOs to obtain wayleaves to run their own infrastructure between municipal districts within greater Cape Town. In fact, I'm tempted to say it's basically impossible.

As such, FNO quality varies from one municipal district to another.

Openserve are the exception to this rule as they 100% self provide redundant links to every one of Telkom's exchanges - where they host their POPs.
 
portcullis said:
if you're in Rondebosch or Brackenfell, you will be connecting directly to the FNO's infrastructure in their data centres, but if you're in Strand, your traffic will be running over a City of Cape Town layer 2 service that's picked up at CoCT's data centre in Somerset West, then transported back to Rondebosch. if you're in Paarl or Wellington, chances are the layer 2 is provided by DFA and you are connecting to DFA's POP in the old BOE building in Paarl and from there back to Rondebosch.

It's very difficult for FNOs to obtain wayleaves to run their own infrastructure between municipal districts within greater Cape Town. In fact, I'm tempted to say it's basically impossible.

As such, FNO quality varies from one municipal district to another.

Openserve are the exception to this rule as they 100% self provide redundant links to every one of Telkom's exchanges - where they host their POPs.
Click to expand...
The irony with Openserve however is every now and then they have the worst latency due to the length of the backhaul routes they use.

Openserve often has no clue about their network and the routes they have available and so just use what is active. For instance their PTA-JHB latency to their handover is the same as the latency from JHB to KZN.

This is simply down to their ring design from ages back.
 
fsadulla said:
It depends on the area in Cape Town as I know performances of ISP's in different areas arent the same. In Athlone, Cool Ideas is very good, been using Urban X since July 2024 last year and Im happy with them too
Click to expand...
Just on this comment it doesnt really matter where you are, all FNOs handover traffic at the same place.

Its then up to the ISP from there which can have a variance.
 
PBCool said:
The irony with Openserve however is every now and then they have the worst latency due to the length of the backhaul routes they use.

Openserve often has no clue about their network and the routes they have available and so just use what is active. For instance their PTA-JHB latency to their handover is the same as the latency from JHB to KZN.

This is simply down to their ring design from ages back.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of that part microwave link through the Northern Cape. One minute Rondebosch to Isando is 18ms and the next it's 160ms.

I suspect back in the day when the corporate head hunters went in and reduced the staff compliment from 60,000+ to less than 10,000 many of the people who knew how the network worked were "invited" to take early pension, leaving a new generation of people who simply don't understand the network. And they thought that would be OK, as the network is mos self healing :)

The backup Jhb to Pta probably runs through Potch or Witbank.
The backup Rondebosch to Somerset West runs through Paarl.
 
portcullis said:
if you're in Rondebosch or Brackenfell, you will be connecting directly to the FNO's infrastructure in their data centres, but if you're in Strand, your traffic will be running over a City of Cape Town layer 2 service that's picked up at CoCT's data centre in Somerset West, then transported back to Rondebosch. if you're in Paarl or Wellington, chances are the layer 2 is provided by DFA and you are connecting to DFA's POP in the old BOE building in Paarl and from there back to Rondebosch.

It's very difficult for FNOs to obtain wayleaves to run their own infrastructure between municipal districts within greater Cape Town. In fact, I'm tempted to say it's basically impossible.

As such, FNO quality varies from one municipal district to another.

Openserve are the exception to this rule as they 100% self provide redundant links to every one of Telkom's exchanges - where they host their POPs.
Click to expand...

PBCool said:
The irony with Openserve however is every now and then they have the worst latency due to the length of the backhaul routes they use.

Openserve often has no clue about their network and the routes they have available and so just use what is active. For instance their PTA-JHB latency to their handover is the same as the latency from JHB to KZN.

This is simply down to their ring design from ages back.
Click to expand...

PBCool said:
Just on this comment it doesnt really matter where you are, all FNOs handover traffic at the same place.

Its then up to the ISP from there which can have a variance.
Click to expand...

portcullis said:
The backup Jhb to Pta probably runs through Potch or Witbank.
The backup Rondebosch to Somerset West runs through Paarl.
Click to expand...

Thx for this gents. Quoted for prosperity.

Explaining all of the above to a user complaining about his 'wifi (sic) being slow', feels like an insurmountable task and usually just boils down to :

1751539952401.png


I was also today years old when I learned that the link between Helderberg and CT is over COCT infrastructure, and not DFA. Always assumed it was self-provision or on DFA fibres all the way.
 
ld13 said:
I was also today years old when I learned that the link between Helderberg and CT is over COCT infrastructure, and not DFA. Always assumed it was self-provision or on DFA fibres all the way.
Click to expand...

Our POP in Victoria Centre (diagonally opposite CoCT's POP next to the council offices) has DFA, Openserve and Liquid. In fact, Liquid are in our POP. There's a partition wall between us. We self provision from there.

Back in the day (about 10 years ago) CoCT offered a deal where they'd offer you a 10Gb ring with 10 breakout points for R55K a month. Obviously one breakout would be at Teraco Rondebosch, but the rest could be at any one of their sites between Strand and Atlantis. That was a lot cheaper than anyone else.

Basically, everyone except CoCT is in Victoria Centre. It was "the high building" once upon a time - hence all the cellular base stations.
DFA's other POP is near Builder's Warehouse near Somerset Mall.
 
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