Cool Ideas FTTH

[DERoestorf]

Hi PBcool,

Just need some info, currently subscribed to 20/20.
1) Why is the connection fees are different on different networks, talking specifically for Maboneng compared to Metro fibre? R1000 vs R500?

2) Also, why is there a subscription fees are different amongst different providers, I gather that the infrastructure providers might be charging different fees but i'm sure the ISP's like you guys should request for the Infrastructure providers to have same pricing across the board.

On your point 2, that would be seen as collusion, which is against the anti competitive laws in South Africa. The Fibre providers also have their own funding models, and time to recoup costs.

But it would not be fair to force them all to have the same price. Fibrehoods for example deploys fibre via overhead cables, meaning their costs to install fibre is nearly half that of companies who trench, ie Vuma and the likes. Fibrehoods maintenance however will probably be higher than companies who trench. So in the short term, they may be cheaper due to the initial capital needed for funding, but in the long run, they may become more expensive.

 

[Swa]

Thanks Sinbad, so how would one (Consumer) find out on the technology deployed? i.e. AON or GPON?

Give me some clarifications on this, is it safe to say that, GPON is more based like Telkom's ADSL methodology where an exchange has a capacity of 100mbps and we get over subscription of 100 users connecting to the same exchange and everyone will share the line @ 1mbps? = congested exchange = crap user experience?

Afaik Vumatel and Metrofibre uses AON while the rest use GPON. Technology is also not an indication of congestion and would depend on the contention ratio employed.

 

[koeksGHT]

Afaik Vumatel and Metrofibre uses AON while the rest use GPON. Technology is also not an indication of congestion and would depend on the contention ratio employed.

Also not a lot of usage, Vuma does 3Gbps max at peak I think

 

[Looney]

On your point 2, that would be seen as collusion, which is against the anti competitive laws in South Africa. The Fibre providers also have their own funding models, and time to recoup costs.

But it would not be fair to force them all to have the same price. Fibrehoods for example deploys fibre via overhead cables, meaning their costs to install fibre is nearly half that of companies who trench, ie Vuma and the likes. Fibrehoods maintenance however will probably be higher than companies who trench. So in the short term, they may be cheaper due to the initial capital needed for funding, but in the long run, they may become more expensive.

Why would Fibrehoods maintenance be higher then vumatel? Assuming a cable breaks, it's easier for fibrehoods to replace the cable as they don't need to trench the road.

 

[PBCool]

Providers have completely different pricing models based on technologies deployed, business plans, etc.

Yeap exactly.

 

[PBCool]

Why would Fibrehoods maintenance be higher then vumatel? Assuming a cable breaks, it's easier for fibrehoods to replace the cable as they don't need to trench the road.

With structured cabling you generally don't need to trench with a single fibre break, you just use a spare core and re-patch. This is an ongoing discussion, Fibrehoods had a car drive into one of the poles and it brought down the whole suburb. You have a cable completely cut and it would only really affect the one side of the street.

Fibrehoods' split is currently 32 per 2.5Gbps card from when this was last discussed with them, IE 32x 100Mbps circuits for upload from the headend (download for customer), and then on the download 1.2Gbps so 32x 50Mbps circuits are split (upload from the customer).

Vumatel is definitely doing more than 3Gbps at peak...

 

[Looney]

With structured cabling you generally don't need to trench with a single fibre break, you just use a spare core and re-patch. This is an ongoing discussion, Fibrehoods had a car drive into one of the poles and it brought down the whole suburb. You have a cable completely cut and it would only really affect the one side of the street.

Fibrehoods' split is currently 32 per 2.5Gbps card from when this was last discussed with them, IE 32x 100Mbps circuits for upload from the headend (download for customer), and then on the download 1.2Gbps so 32x 50Mbps circuits are split (upload from the customer).

Vumatel is definitely doing more than 3Gbps at peak...

So would you say Vumatel is the better provider?

 

[PBCool]

So would you say Vumatel is the better provider?

They are by far the bigger, and as a customer myself I have only had downtime for about 2hrs over nearly 2 years.

That being said we haven't had much issues on any of the networks we operate on to be honest, from an up-time or performance perspective. Not having to pay for IPC contributes to this as well.

 

[Looney]

They are by far the bigger, and as a customer myself I have only had downtime for about 2hrs over nearly 2 years.

That being said we haven't had much issues on any of the networks we operate on to be honest, from an up-time or performance perspective. Not having to pay for IPC contributes to this as well.

So if you had to choose one provider between Vumatel and Fibrehoods to come to your area, who would you choose?

Considering the fact the Cool Ideas on Fibrehoods is R999 for 100/100 uncapped unshaped whereas on Vumatel the same thing will cost R1599

 

[koeksGHT]

So if you had to choose one provider between Vumatel and Fibrehoods to come to your area, who would you choose?

Considering the fact the Cool Ideas on Fibrehoods is R999 for 100/100 uncapped unshaped whereas on Vumatel the same thing will cost R1599

Vuma, fibrehoods does aerial

 

[Looney]

Vuma, fibrehoods does aerial

And why should one care if it's aerial or trenched, besides the fact that it could look ugly?

What makes Vumatel better then Fibrehoods? I'm not very familiar with the technology used.

 

[koeksGHT]

And why should one care if it's aerial or trenched, besides the fact that it could look ugly?

What makes Vumatel better then Fibrehoods? I'm not very familiar with the technology used.

Well poles tend to have more downtime because they can be hit, it's also pon so it takes out a whole neighborhood. Vuma is active so incidents are usually more isolated and being trenched means less maintenance.

 

[Looney]

Well poles tend to have more downtime because they can be hit, it's also pon so it takes out a whole neighborhood. Vuma is active so incidents are usually more isolated and being trenched means less maintenance.

Oh I see, I would have thought being trenched is more maintenance and more costly too since they would need to retrench the road to replace a faulty cable.

I have heard that Fibrehoods do have a quick turn around time if they need to replace a cable, something like 24 hours?

 

[koeksGHT]

Oh I see, I would have thought being trenched is more maintenance and more costly too since they would need to retrench the road to replace a faulty cable.

I have heard that Fibrehoods do have a quick turn around time if they need to replace a cable, something like 24 hours?

No, it's all ducts so no retrenching. I'm sure response time is good as it usually affects multiple people.

 

[Looney]

No, it's all ducts so no retrenching. I'm sure response time is good as it usually affects multiple people.

Oh ok I see. Ah well, Fibrehoods are apparently coming to my area soon. Suppose I should just be happy and not complain that one of them decided to take the plunge.

 

[koeksGHT]

Oh ok I see. Ah well, Fibrehoods are apparently coming to my area soon. Suppose I should just be happy and not complain that one of them decided to take the plunge.

Take what you can get.

 

[PBCool]

So if you had to choose one provider between Vumatel and Fibrehoods to come to your area, who would you choose?

Considering the fact the Cool Ideas on Fibrehoods is R999 for 100/100 uncapped unshaped whereas on Vumatel the same thing will cost R1599

There is a line increase coming soon on the FH side, we are throwing around numbers to see how we can mitigate its impact.

 

[Looney]

There is a line increase coming soon on the FH side, we are throwing around numbers to see how we can mitigate its impact.

Ouch, well that's gonna suck! Ah well, what choice will I have tbh... like Koeks said, take what I can get.

 

[PBCool]

Yeap unfortunately

 

[Sinbad]

Ouch, well that's gonna suck! Ah well, what choice will I have tbh... like Koeks said, take what I can get.

Still better than Telkom...