Fibre in town, not on coverage map

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Taragoempie

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Hi

There is an fibre line running past my house, its +-100m away from my house, refer to the attached picture. The red line resembles the fibre line, blue line is the overhead Telkom lines on the poles.

I phoned numerous fibre ISP's for more information, apparently they cant assist me because its not in their coverage area or planned area. Frogfoot gave me the most information, they said: "They would advise that I contact the City Council and notify them that my area would like the opportunity to have fibre. The Council will then notify their project heads and acquisitions. The Acquisitions team deals with planning of fibre in precincts. Once the Council gives us the approval to go ahead with Civil works they will commence with the laying of infrastructure"

Now that makes sense if the town or area doesn't have any fibre, but here the main streets of the town already has fibre.

Is n fibre installation so expensive that its not financial viable to help 1 customer?



Capture.PNG
 
You are not the first person to ask that question. The fibre link that is running past your smallholding is more than likely a link from DFA. Available to use? Yes, if you have deep enough pockets. Without specifics I'm just thumb sucking.
 
Taragoempie said:
Hi

There is an fibre line running past my house, its +-100m away from my house, refer to the attached picture. The red line resembles the fibre line, blue line is the overhead Telkom lines on the poles.

I phoned numerous fibre ISP's for more information, apparently they cant assist me because its not in their coverage area or planned area. Frogfoot gave me the most information, they said: "They would advise that I contact the City Council and notify them that my area would like the opportunity to have fibre. The Council will then notify their project heads and acquisitions. The Acquisitions team deals with planning of fibre in precincts. Once the Council gives us the approval to go ahead with Civil works they will commence with the laying of infrastructure"

Now that makes sense if the town or area doesn't have any fibre, but here the main streets of the town already has fibre.

Is n fibre installation so expensive that its not financial viable to help 1 customer?



View attachment 786604
Click to expand...

Can you PM me co-ordinates?
 
I have a similar situation. There's a Link Africa fibre line running past my house - they actually dug up part of our driveway to lay it - but they only willing to serve businesses, at business prices - which is steep for a home connection. Afaik, it's powering the cellular tower on top of the till about a 5min walk from where I live.

I witnessed them installing it couple of years ago... and now recently I saw this on Vodacom's website.
Screenshot 2020-02-16 at 17.22.18.png
 
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I have the same, DFA line running under my driveway, but still can't get fiber because it is business only
 
Genisys said:
You are not the first person to ask that question. The fibre link that is running past your smallholding is more than likely a link from DFA. Available to use? Yes, if you have deep enough pockets. Without specifics I'm just thumb sucking.
Click to expand...
I have heard about the prices, im not willing to pay for business installation plus line rental. Compared to home installation
 
Understanding home fibre and core fibre a little...

1. It's very expensive to lay down in the ground. We're talking R500k-R1m / km. Aerial fibre is expensive too, but significantly less.
2. Fibre is not internet. Fibre carries light (and hence networks) between two points - that means a connection needs to extend between your home and a nearby Point of presence (POP) and from there, backhaul to an exchange point/datacentre where it connects to a core network and other networks and forms the internet. This means you can't simply cut into a fibre route and magically connect to the internet.
3. The reason "Business Fibre" is expensive is because (generally), this path is dedicated, either all the way from X to to the POP (this means a pair of fibres is run between X and POP) or even all the way to the exchange point.
4. DFA - Dark Fibre Africa: their name says it all. Their core business is selling unlit fibre pairs between any two points. This is usually sold per meter, on long contracts and is meant for use by other providers - DFA don't provide internet and (generally) don't light fibre up.
5. A lot of DFA builds are for mobile networks or custom builds for other providers - rings of dark fibre linking towers and POPs together

How home fibre operators (FNOs) achieve economy of scale and deliver an affordable fibre service to your home:
1. A backbone provider (like DFA) provides fibres for capacity between a POP and a datacentre/exchange point - this can literally span provinces. This capacity is also very expensive
2. A FNO establishes a POP in a certain region and installs affordable last mile hardware (GPON or affordable AE switches)
3. This FNO rolls out an access network with fibre ports prepared for every home along its route. This means that the large cost of installation is divided by all the houses along this route. Whether an FNO builds for 1 home or all the homes along a particular route, this cost is fairly flat
4. The FNO optimises the last mile installation and charges a small amount to install a drop cable and some sort of Fibre Conversion device (ONU or switch)

What this all means:

If you want fibre in your neighbourhood, it helps to have these DFA/Link Africa routes nearby - that means there's backhaul to somewhere. But that doesn't make a business case just yet. The next is to get all the residents in your area to petition an FNO for a build. The FNOs scout this interest, and if a business case really does exist, they will build.
 
websquadza said:
Understanding home fibre and core fibre a little...

1. It's very expensive to lay down in the ground. We're talking R500k-R1m / km. Aerial fibre is expensive too, but significantly less.
2. Fibre is not internet. Fibre carries light (and hence networks) between two points - that means a connection needs to extend between your home and a nearby Point of presence (POP) and from there, backhaul to an exchange point/datacentre where it connects to a core network and other networks and forms the internet. This means you can't simply cut into a fibre route and magically connect to the internet.
3. The reason "Business Fibre" is expensive is because (generally), this path is dedicated, either all the way from X to to the POP (this means a pair of fibres is run between X and POP) or even all the way to the exchange point.
4. DFA - Dark Fibre Africa: their name says it all. Their core business is selling unlit fibre pairs between any two points. This is usually sold per meter, on long contracts and is meant for use by other providers - DFA don't provide internet and (generally) don't light fibre up.
5. A lot of DFA builds are for mobile networks or custom builds for other providers - rings of dark fibre linking towers and POPs together

How home fibre operators (FNOs) achieve economy of scale and deliver an affordable fibre service to your home:
1. A backbone provider (like DFA) provides fibres for capacity between a POP and a datacentre/exchange point - this can literally span provinces. This capacity is also very expensive
2. A FNO establishes a POP in a certain region and installs affordable last mile hardware (GPON or affordable AE switches)
3. This FNO rolls out an access network with fibre ports prepared for every home along its route. This means that the large cost of installation is divided by all the houses along this route. Whether an FNO builds for 1 home or all the homes along a particular route, this cost is fairly flat
4. The FNO optimises the last mile installation and charges a small amount to install a drop cable and some sort of Fibre Conversion device (ONU or switch)

What this all means:

If you want fibre in your neighbourhood, it helps to have these DFA/Link Africa routes nearby - that means there's backhaul to somewhere. But that doesn't make a business case just yet. The next is to get all the residents in your area to petition an FNO for a build. The FNOs scout this interest, and if a business case really does exist, they will build.
Click to expand...
Now that I understand DFA, but its definitely not unlit, the past weekend there was n festival in town where they supplied Wifi through that fibre cable.

How can I start n petition for that?
 
Taragoempie said:
Now that I understand DFA, but its definitely not unlit, the past weekend there was n festival in town where they supplied Wifi through that fibre cable.

How can I start n petition for that?
Click to expand...
No, you don't understand DFA going by your post. Its possible that someone leased the fibre to the festival for the weekend. You can petition all you want to, but unless you get 30% of your area to show interest you are unlikely to see fibre.
 
ronald911 said:
I have a similar situation. There's a Link Africa fibre line running past my house, almost right on my doorstep - but they only willing to serve businesses, at business prices - which is steep for a home connection.

I witnessed them installing it couple of years ago... and now recently I saw this on Vodacom's website.
View attachment 786884
Click to expand...

A 10mb line should come to under R1K
 
Genisys said:
No, you don't understand DFA going by your post. Its possible that someone leased the fibre to the festival for the weekend. You can petition all you want to, but unless you get 30% of your area to show interest you are unlikely to see fibre.
Click to expand...
You wont even get it with 30% from Dark Fibre, you need companies like Vumatel and Octotel for this. As they do the last mile trenching in neighbourhoods. Dark Fibre Africa has the long haul routes and the vumatels and octotels tap into this.
 
davyb said:
You wont even get it with 30% from Dark Fibre, you need companies like Vumatel and Octotel for this. As they do the last mile trenching in neighbourhoods. Dark Fibre Africa has the long haul routes and the vumatels and octotels tap into this.
Click to expand...
Yup, that is what I was implying, OP will need to show Vumatel or another FNO that they can gather the interest.
 
ronald911 said:
Also, I found this

Biggest Provider of Communication Services

iggest provider of communication services in South Africa for mobile, home and business. ADSL, Fiber, Wireless broadband and mobile internet services.
secure.telkom.co.za secure.telkom.co.za

Sent them an email.... lets see if they get back to me.. considering its Telkom, I'm not holding my breath.
Click to expand...
You can also order via the Link Africa website. Go to the map enter your address and view offers
 
Phoned around and sent n few mails, nobody is really willing to help since the coverage map is law.

Hopefully someone will assist out of all the FNO's.
 
Genisys said:
No, you don't understand DFA going by your post. Its possible that someone leased the fibre to the festival for the weekend. You can petition all you want to, but unless you get 30% of your area to show interest you are unlikely to see fibre.
Click to expand...
Looking at the OP's picture, that's small holdings, even with 50% + uptake he's gonna struggle. I'd have to look at a larger area, but going on the pic provided, I wouldn't build there.
 
Sent an email to Link Africa asking in regard to FTTH / steps on how to get an FNO to our neighbourhood. Considering there's already an FTTB infrastructure and we live in a fairly small, but dense neighbourhood. Got a quick response from them and said they will pass it on to the relevant department and will get back to me on Monday.
 
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