Difference between expensive FTTB and cheap FTTB

Charly

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Hi. I've got two quotes for 100mbps FTTB. Both are unshaped and uncapped with no FUP but the one costs R3k and the other costs R12k. The only difference is that the 12k package has fibre installed to the premises and the 3k package makes use of Telkom's existing fibre. Is the only difference contention? If so, what difference would that make.
 
Difference between expensive FTTB and cheap FTTB? The price maybe?:D
 
Contention ratio of each?
Just heard from the cheaper provider. They say that there's no SLA because they operate on Telkom's network and can't guarantee the performance/uptime. The expensive one has an SLA and a contention ratio of 1:4. The cheaper one says "As this is a broadband service – it may vary. Normally 1:20".

R12k for internet is completely out of the budget. How would the cheaper one handle like 20-40 people?
 
Just heard from the cheaper provider. They say that there's no SLA because they operate on Telkom's network and can't guarantee the performance/uptime. The expensive one has an SLA and a contention ratio of 1:4. The cheaper one says "As this is a broadband service – it may vary. Normally 1:20".

R12k for internet is completely out of the budget. How would the cheaper one handle like 20-40 people?

20-40 people doing what?
 
20-40 people doing what?
Streaming, checking emails or doing general web browsing. Probably the occasional torrent too.

The 20-40 people wouldn't be streaming all at once though. 100mbps should probably hold 11-12 HD streams at once.

Is it going to perform a lot worse than the more expensive product though?
 
Difference is that one is FTTH (cheap) and the other is proper FTTB. It's all about the contention ratio.

R12k p/m for a 100Mbps at 1:4 sounds about right. If you have 40 people using it, i'd rather go for a low contention ratio 50Mbps if the 100Mbps is too expensive.
 
Hi. I've got two quotes for 100mbps FTTB. Both are unshaped and uncapped with no FUP but the one costs R3k and the other costs R12k. The only difference is that the 12k package has fibre installed to the premises and the 3k package makes use of Telkom's existing fibre. Is the only difference contention? If so, what difference would that make.

All things being equal ( which they are not), the expensive one implies new fibre infrastructure installed or to be installed all the way to your business premises, which may account for some of the price difference.

The one with a cap on the "contention ratio" at 1:4 should provide the better service, provided it is backed up with sufficient backhaul network capacity into the Internet. You do not say if one or both are duplex (symmetrical) services, 100 Mbps in both directions .....

In my opinion, nothing with a "contention ratio" of more than 1:10, should be called a "broadband service" anyway .....
 
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Difference is that one is FTTH (cheap) and the other is proper FTTB. It's all about the contention ratio.

R12k p/m for a 100Mbps at 1:4 sounds about right. If you have 40 people using it, i'd rather go for a low contention ratio 50Mbps if the 100Mbps is too expensive.
Ah. So it's more of a FTTH product even though they advertise it as FTTB?

It'll only be 20 people for now but closer towards the end of the year it'll probably have grown a bit. In that case we'll have the budget to upgrade it to a 200mbps line.
 
All things being equal ( which they are not), the expensive one implies new fibre infrastructure installed or to be installed all the way to your business premises, which may account for some of the price difference.

The one with a cap on the "contention ratio" at 1:4 should provide the better service, provided it is backed up with sufficient backhaul network capacity into the Internet. You do not say if one or both are duplex (symmetrical) services, 100 Mbps in both directions .....

In my opinion, nothing with a "contention ratio" of more than 1:10, should be called a "broadband service" anyway .....

Isn't consumer grade internet usually quite a lot more than 1:10?

The cheaper one is asynchronous and I'm assuming the expensive one isn't.
 
You get what you pay for, we had a service ( no names mentioned - but their sale did fall through ) which we got early on when they had a contention ratio of less than 3. This was great on our 5mb FTTB line, 24 months later we have been bumped up to 10mb at the same price but now the official 10:1 ratio has kicked in and International traffic is only 1/10 of line speed and the provider says well we are still above of 10:1 ratio so their is no problem with the line.

hence we moving when our period is up.
 
Ah. So it's more of a FTTH product even though they advertise it as FTTB?

It'll only be 20 people for now but closer towards the end of the year it'll probably have grown a bit. In that case we'll have the budget to upgrade it to a 200mbps line.

Exactly. FTTB services should be able to guarantee their speed and contention ratios, along with uptime guarantees etc. That's what the SLA is for.

In SA, the FTTH services are normally broadband/burstable. That means your max speed will be the advertised one, but there is no guarantee of what the actual service delivery is. I've seen FTTH sites contended up to 1:50. If they are using Telkom FTTH infrastructure, they have no control over the contention ratio, unless it'a Metroclear type product, which costs WAY more that R3k p/m
 
Exactly. FTTB services should be able to guarantee their speed and contention ratios, along with uptime guarantees etc. That's what the SLA is for.

In SA, the FTTH services are normally broadband/burstable. That means your max speed will be the advertised one, but there is no guarantee of what the actual service delivery is. I've seen FTTH sites contended up to 1:50. If they are using Telkom FTTH infrastructure, they have no control over the contention ratio, unless it'a Metroclear type product, which costs WAY more that R3k p/m
I see the service (cheaper one from Infinity Fibre. Run by XDSL) has these two features:

"Consistent High Speed - Unlike speed "boosts" that only work for a moment, INFINITY delivers consistently fast speed no matter the time of day.
24-Hour Reliability - INFINITY gives you consistently fast speed, no matter when you're online."
There's no SLA so they'd be completely within their rights if they didn't follow these guidelines?
 
I see the service (cheaper one from Infinity Fibre. Run by XDSL) has these two features:

"Consistent High Speed - Unlike speed "boosts" that only work for a moment, INFINITY delivers consistently fast speed no matter the time of day.
24-Hour Reliability - INFINITY gives you consistently fast speed, no matter when you're online."
There's no SLA so they'd be completely within their rights if they didn't follow these guidelines?

The 12k product sounds like Seacom/DFA fibre product which is uncapped 1:4. So difference is really Telkom or DFA owning the last mile fibre. DFA would be the better option for business with SLA.
 
12k p/m for 100mbit 1:4 is actually a very good price.

I'd second what someone here said earlier, see if you can get pricing on a 50mbit pipe from the provider offering the proper FTTB / SLA / low contention ratio.
 
12k p/m for 100mbit 1:4 is actually a very good price.

I'd second what someone here said earlier, see if you can get pricing on a 50mbit pipe from the provider offering the proper FTTB / SLA / low contention ratio.

25mbps is R5299 ex vat pm, 50Mbps is R6999 ex vat pm.
 
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