Experience with Linteg Fibre

[CliffordEls]

x

 

[charlieharper]

They are currently installing in Scottburgh, KZN as well.

They've been trenching and laying ducts for almost a month now and have done around 50% of our neighbourhood. They estimate to be live in about 6 weeks.

 

[charlieharper]

Here's another thread related to Linteg https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/linteg-co-za-heard-of-them.957025/

 

[charlieharper]

Sorry for the late reply, I forgot to check back here but thank you for the thread.
Checking your replies on that thread it seems like it took a month from when you found out Linteg would be installing to when they actually started installing, so I can probably expect the same thing here

We were told on the 17th of September that wayleaves were finally approved.
21st of September we were told that Linteg would start going around on the 23rd to do the final round for expression of interest and that they needed 500 signups so they can start the installation.
On the 1st of October they announced that they reached 505 signups and that the build will start soon but now its almost 2 weeks later and we still haven't heard anything else. Hopefully they actually start this month.

On another note, do you perhaps know why the ISPs and pricing Linteg has changes between areas?
I see in that thread Cool Ideas is supposed to be an ISP with them but they don't show up in Sophiatown

You're right, it did take about a month for us from Wayleaves to Trenching. Also bare in mind, we submitted our expression of interest long before they even applied for wayleaves, so maybe slight head start here.

Yeap, from what it seems, they most certainly are changing pricing based on location for a reason I don't know. I preordered with Newcofibre in the meantime, which is their in-house ISP.

They've probably trenched about 80% of our neighbourhood now.

DM me if you have more questions

 

[charlieharper]

But yeah, their KZN team has been working super hard. They only started trenching in the last week of August, about 80% of ducts in our neighbourhood are in and verges reinstated.

I'm positive we'll have Fibre before December.

As mentioned in another thread, trenching and ducting is about 85% of the work. Shooting through the actual Fibre and the more technical work is the "easier" part.

 

[charlieharper]

They are now trenching our driveway / verge as we speak.

 

[charlieharper]

From what i've been hearing, it isn't looking too good for the build in Sophiatown. Even after getting over 500 signatures saying we want fibre in the area, it seems Linteg is insisting on having people sign SLA's before they start the build.
However most people have said that they aren't willing to sign anything till they see the infrastructure being built.

I'm hoping our neighbourhood watch has copies of all the interest people have shown so we can hopefully show that to Vumatel or Openserve if they ever show interest in laying fibre here again

Wow, interesting.

Yeah, everything's been kinda smoothly here on the KZN coast. I think majority trenching and ducts have been laid in our neighbourhood. Just waiting for DFA to hook us up with backhaul, ETA end of the month, then I think they'll shoot through the fibre and should be live soon after.

Spoke to the Linteg lady who was on sight to guide the trenches by our house earlier the week and she did mention people aren't preordering (SLA's) as much as they had hoped for... but as we know, most people only subscribe once they know its live anyway.

Maybe @j1o2h3a4n from Linteg has more info.

Cheers!

 

[charlieharper]

Linteg said they will be live here (Freeland Park, KZN) by the end of the month.

Pretty interesting that their pricing however is different depending on the area, where as big FNO's usually have consistent pricing regardless of the area.

Eg a 100mbps line in Jackal Creek is R1100, vs 100mbps here is a R1300.

 

[charlieharper]

I did however notice something interesting, 3x of their so called "Awesome Partner ISP's" appears to have been incorporated very recently and all share the same registered address as Linteg themselves.

Not sure if i'm just being paranoid or if I should be concerned.

 

[charlieharper]

That is kinda suspicious and should probably be something to keep in mind. They do also have Supersonic and CISP for some areas which are reputable ISPs, now if only we could find out why they are only in some areas and not others.

Yeap.. Kinda disappointing that they market their FNO as:

Linteg Fibre is an open access fibre provider, meaning we work with a wide range of South Africa’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs), so you can easily find the right package for your needs.

... but then you have only have choice of 2x ISP's, with exact same pricing, same registered address, same directors, owned by the same FNO, disguised to be competing with each other so consumers will think they have 'options'.

Surely, this breaches the idea of what they promote to be an 'Open Access' network?

I made good contact with the CEO and their team, they are doing a great job trenching a rather difficult area, and they are super nice and I'm super thankful they are here, will most certainly sign up once they go live, but I'm far too scared to drop this question, as I don't wanna sound like a detective, but definitely something I will keep in mind.

 

[charlieharper]

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to ask them those questions, if they want to build their reputation and get even more customers then they probably would answer, but it would probably be better to ask in person just so you can get the tone right.

With us over here, the build apparently started on Tuesday (3rd November) and they 38 homes, yesterday they passed 50 homes bringing the total to 88.
The daily build starts at 8:00 and ends at 17:00 and they apparently have a goal of completing in early December because they only have 29km of fibre to lay

Wow! That will be amazing.

They've been busy here since late August.. I think ±130 homes.

Their goal is also to go live early December here.

 

[charlieharper]

This weekend I noticed most of the trenches open again.... turns out their initial trenches wasn't deep enough.... this is probably bound for another delay.

 

[charlieharper]

Now im waiting to see what Telkom does. Apparently the cables were stolen and its unlikely they will be replacing them. They've also seen trenching happening so they might start rushing to roll out here just so they can maintain whatever clients they still have (it's unlikely though)

Yeap exactly what happened here...

Openserve started puling aerial fibre as soon as Linteg started trenching... a big part of the area already live on Openserve.

 

[charlieharper]

@CliffordEls Any updates your side?

I'm actually feeling really bad for Linteg as I've been pretty involved with them, since they first shown interest in our neighbourhood, I submitted Expression of Interests to them, etc till they finally green light.
I've personally met many of their team's and been communicating since day one.

I've continued to 'promote' them and tried to get the neighbourhood residents to calm the heck down whenever they get upset about a water pipe that's accidentally been hit or a driveway etc.
The team would constantly provide feedback on the whatsapp groups and tell us what's happening and occasionally drop some marketing material.

Overall, the communication between community and Linteg was great.

However, as of recent, Lineteg has gone extremely quiet in our area.

Trenches haven't been touched all week, after they started 'retrenching' because apparently it didn't comply.
Lately no more communication on the whatsapp groups from them regarding what's happening, despite many people asking questions, directly to Linteg's teams..
They seem to dodge any question related to a rough ETA.
However, before they started trenching they indicated that once wayleaves are approved, it would take about 6 weeks till they are live. We are now at about 12 weeks in with no ETA in sight.

Meanwhile, Openserve is walking around in their green uniforms, talking to residents, handing out pamphlets and talking to people at their gate, indicating their aerial fibre will be going live in a matter of days.

Strange times indeed.

 

[charlieharper]

No updates really. Trenching is still ongoing, it looks like they pushing to finish the middle section now. The blue cabling I saw was actually conduit (which makes sense). I've also seen some smaller conduits running towards the house. Criminals have started catching onto the build and are trying to gain access to properties saying they're there to install fibre but we've been told the home installations haven't started.

As for communication from Linteg I can't really speak to that, as i've said before we have a third party between Linteg and our neighbourhood watch but lately they haven't given us any information. In the beginning we got daily updates about how many houses they passed and what streets they were doing but because it looks like there is a lot more guys working on different streets its probably difficult to get accurate numbers.

As for residents complaining there has been quite a lot, we've had burst pipes and problems with our electricity since they started trenching but there haven't been any calls for them to stop. People are putting up with this because they know if Linteg pulls out then we're never getting fibre.

We are coming up on early December so depending on how trenching goes for the next 2 weeks they might actually make their deadline although im only expecting them to go live maybe January.
I haven't seen any Openserve guys around so it doesn't look like they're too interested in installing fibre here even after seeing the trenching that's happening.

As for your side, it's quite sad that Linteg went quiet. I applaud them for actually taking on the task to install fibre where bigger FNO's thought it wasn't worth it. It looks like they got a bit unlucky in your area. Maybe they're thinking of pulling out seeing as Openserve is almost up and running and the other half of your area was snatched by another FNO. Hopefully they do finish the install in your area because it's nice to have options when Telkom inevitably starts with their ****

Still no word from Linteg this side.. They went totally quiet.
I'm actually feeling like an idiot now as I practically got them to our neighbourhood months ago and kept promoting them to our Rate Payers Association, etc... now we're left with abandoned trenches and they are ignoring our messages when asking for updates.

Here's my initial post on 'How I got Fibre'...

Ronald Langeveld

Hi I'm Ronald. Welcome to my corner of the internet.

www.ronaldlangeveld.com

 

[charlieharper]

So, finally got hold of someone who was in touch with Linteg.. Quite a lot of drama apparently.

Turns out their contractor picked up scrap with their local workforce and were forced to leave, leaving trenches wide open... Don't know exactly what and how that happened.

Will update as soon as I get more info.

 

[charlieharper]

If they're telling you what the problem was then hopefully they're close to solving it, not that it matters because I see in your other thread you finally got Openserve fibre.

As for here, there is no work happening at all. I haven't been able to take a drive down all the streets but from what i've seen the middle section is mostly finished, they were doing the final streets of the top section and no work has been done on the bottom section.
There's has also been no communication between us and Linteg so i'll keep an eye out, but if no work gets done in December then I only expect us to go live probably the end of January

It's a pity though.. Usually like supporting the underdogs, especially in tech.

I hope they are sorting it out... since I got them here, all residents are basically looking at me for their open verges, kinda makes me feel responsible.

 

[charlieharper]

Still not a word from Linteg... last time I heard from them was on the 8th of December.
Sent another message on Thursday asking for updates, cause we still have open trenches on our verges.

Not a word from them sadly.

 

[Techie101]

Sadly Linteg has appointed a not so very capable contractor /Company called Prestige Matrix Networks to do the build in Sophiatown.

We were promised to go live in December already and that didn't happen.

The Prestige team visits homes and makes appointments for home installation etc and then you take off work and they just don't pitch.

No call
No apologies


Prestige Matrix Network seems to be very unprofessional and their communication is absolutely non existent.

Dauw who organized for Linteg to install Fibre has been running around trying to get things sorted even meeting with the owner of Linteg etc

Don't see any solution soon unfortunately and because of the incompetence of Prestige Matrix Network it seems that the cluster 2 and 3 build will likely not start this month

 

[charlieharper]

Some weird stuff also happening our side..

On Friday, the lady who was involved with Linteg / NewCoFibre's marketing a few months ago suddenly posted an advert on our neighbourhood whatsapp Fibre group.... and it wasn't an advert for Linteg. Instead, it's an advert for another FNO who's been doing other parts of Scottburgh, called South Coast Fibre. It immediately made me think, "what the hell, what happened to Linteg?"

I asked directly on the group, Did South Coast Fibre buy Linteg's infrastructure by any chance?

She then responded to me in private saying, Hi. I will give you an update as soon as I'm able to.

I've honestly never been this confused. lol