Can SA afford fibre to the home?

[Yotch]

It has been estimated that it will cost 10 billion Pounds to supply a fibre to the home service to 90% of the UK. At the moment this is not considered financially viable.

Do you think that SA will be able to afford such services in the near future? Would it be a good idea for Telkom to spend money on upgrading the existing copper infrastructure to supply ADSL2 even though the speed improvements may not be substantial?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6936325.stm

 

[bwana]

With copper theft an everyday occurrence does it make sense for them not to switch?

 

[ic]

Fibre to the Curb is considerably more viable, and what that actually means, is fibre optic [instead of copper] running from the local exchanges out to roadside distribution boxes - not the regular green & blue ones, but newer & larger distribution boxes that are painted white, and from those white d/bs copper out to each customer's premises.

I had a brief conversation with a Telkodemonopolies techie a few days back, about the possibility of the beast putting in one of those white d/bs for everyone in my street [most aren't able to get ADSL], and the techie basically said it will never happen - Telkodemonopolies just doesn't care, I mentioned T.M. and he laughed, but then he also mentioned that a lot of companies have already moved over to NeeTel - I assume for replacement Digicrap links - probably limited to Rosebank & Sandton ATM. All I can say is that T.M. is already a failure considering that too few ADSL customers are able to currently get the required speeds for IPTV etc due to excessive copper distance from their local exchange and bad copper quality etc etc etc.

 

[MaD]

With copper theft an everyday occurrence does it make sense for them not to switch?

They're stealing optical lines these days and sewing creating vests (apparently kinda bulletproof) and assorted other items.. they even use bakkies and cars to pull the lines out of the ground, whether copper or fibre..

 

[ldmelsa]

They're stealing optical lines these days and sewing creating vests (apparently kinda bulletproof) and assorted other items.. they even use bakkies and cars to pull the lines out of the ground, whether copper or fibre..

Yep. That's what a technician told me, as well. It's for the Kevlar.

 

[LazyLion]

With copper theft an everyday occurrence does it make sense for them not to switch?

Fibreoptic cables are stolen at the same rate as copper. Apparently there is a considerable black market out there for it. :|

Either that, or they can't figure out the difference.

Should we ever be so lucky that there would be a viable alternative out there???

 

[dominic]

if it happens will be Vodacom and not Telkom

 

[Yotch]

It would appear that one African country believes it can ...

"Mauritius to get Fibre-to-the-Home by 2008 in US$318 million investment plan
According to reports from the African Press Agency, from 2008 all Mauritian homes will be able to connect to the internet via a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network being proposed by United Communications Limited (UCL). The company has reportedly presented a US$318 million two-phase project, dubbed Mauritius FiberNet, to the country’s ICT minister, Etienne Sinatambou, which it claims will make Mauritius a ‘pioneer of such infrastructure among island states’.

The rollout will require the deployment of some 2,200km of optical fibre and will provide internet access at speeds of up to 1Gbps, a UCL engineer said. The company is looking for financial support from the government, local banks and businesses to realise the project and is offering them an equity stake in the new venture by way of enticement."

Source: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html

 

[bwana]

They're stealing optical lines these days and sewing creating vests (apparently kinda bulletproof) and assorted other items.. they even use bakkies and cars to pull the lines out of the ground, whether copper or fibre..

Just goes to show you people will steal anything - no wonder wireless is such an attractive option.

 

[mcleodd]

Just goes to show you people will steal anything - no wonder wireless is such an attractive option.

Until they steal the base station! ;-)

 

[ic]

Until they steal the base station! ;-)

Base-stations are also useless without their fibre optic backhaul links [microwave links offer comparatively limited capacity - especially when dealing with several clustered base-stations]...

Perhaps a few rubber snakes & tarantulas down them manholes will do the trick.

 

[gregmcc]

Now why hasn't anyone stolen Telkom yet!!

 

[ic]

Now why hasn't anyone stolen Telkom yet!!

• Telkodemonopolies, much like its lack of service in most areas, and its Register of Members, is vapourware - impossible to steal what doesn't really exist
• Telkodemonopolies is this country's most active criminal - even to the point of putting potential competing criminals out of business

 

[Moederloos]

I have heard from some oke who used to do security for Telkom, that the optical fibre is stolen repeatedly until Telkom "gives in" and uses copper again.
The point of stealing the fibre is just this, so they can have copper to steal in the end...

Sad. True? Who knows.

 

[antowan]

It has been estimated that it will cost 10 billion Pounds to supply a fibre to the home service to 90% of the UK. At the moment this is not considered financially viable.

Do you think that SA will be able to afford such services in the near future? Would it be a good idea for Telkom to spend money on upgrading the existing copper infrastructure to supply ADSL2 even though the speed improvements may not be substantial?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6936325.stm

In built up areas of South Africa there are already fiber lines running in the streets. Well in lots of areas at least.

The per customer cost in SA should be roughly the same as for the UK cities, so if it is a problem there it should be a problem here. I am however convinced that should our government be a little more forward thinking pricing should not be a big problem to overcome.