Fibre internet in Gauteng on Openserve (Telkom) network

[Bursty-dude]

According to the Sukumani dudes, the FTTH work "is almost done in the area and will be up and running soon".

They are doing minor trenching work at various spots around the neighborhood and have been pulling the fibre into manholes and up poles for the last week.

And this is how the manhole outside our place looks like now (first two show the concrete top and cover when they were finishing it off):




Yesterday they were pulling in fibre from down Van Staden road (no actual fibre visible in the pics, but the huge roll of fibre was down the road and I did not want to be in the way and bug the guys):


Some inside views of the manhole:






They are busy again here today, will go see if I can get some detailed pics later.

 

[bokdrol]

And Waterkloof? What's happening there?

 

[jcheek]

According to the Sukumani dudes, the FTTH work "is almost done in the area and will be up and running soon".
They are doing minor trenching work at various spots around the neighborhood and have been pulling the fibre into manholes and up poles for the last week.
And this is how the manhole outside our place looks like now (first two show the concrete top and cover when they were finishing it off):
<snip>
They are busy again here today, will go see if I can get some detailed pics later.

Nice pics and great updates as always, Bursty-dude!

Not to be a wet blanket, but take the "up and running soon" predictions with a bit of salt!
In our area most of the work was complete in Feb 2015 and the same forecast was made around about then, but .. it was not to be.
As can be expected on a brand-new circuit (I guess), there seemed to be a fair number of commissioning "issues". An oft-quoted one is where the installation guys splice all the individual fibres in a multi-tube cable (like the one in this post), but .. it's the "wrong tube" !

Having said that, the guys in your area seem to be doing a pretty decent job (neat manhole, organised sub-duct rolls etc) so hopefully the workmanship carries through.

Good luck, and keep them updates coming!

PS: What are the items inside the "toolbox" down on the floor in your 5th pic ?

 

[Bursty-dude]

jcheek, very true.
Considering Telkom promised a VDSL upgrade for the area 6 years ago and that never happened, and now with this FTTH story, I am not actually holding my breath that it will be "up and running" any time soon.

Maybe they surprise us and get it done soon:wtf:

That was not a toolbox, it looks to be one of the connection boxes/splicing boxes as seen in other posts where they are mounted on poles.

 

[Bursty-dude]

Sukumani dudes are here today and they were offloading 2 new telephone poles (the long black "tarred" ones) as I was leaving to go to Jhb.
Will see what they have done and update with pics later when I get back.



Edited to add: they apparently just pulled fibre through conduits from the manhole to other manholes in the area today.
The two new poles were placed down the block at two other properties.

I am home tomorrow and will find out what was done and try get pics of any other noteworthy progress.

 

[Bursty-dude]

Conduit from manhole to pole (this is the small manhole on the other corner of the property):


And some action happening (this is the pole in the corner of the property and the cable is a 24 core fibre item):




This is how the Telkom mess looks like and how the new fibre will run:


In all the years we have had ****ty ADSL, not once has a Telkom tech ever been near this mess. I think they are scared of it...

This is the pole where the red conduit is peeping out the ground (this is on the pavement in Maroelana Street):



I wish I could have gotten more pics, but I did not want to bug the guys.

 

[jcheek]

Lookin' good, Bursty-dude !

 

[MickeyD]

I wish I could have gotten more pics, but I did not want to bug the guys.

I don't think that they will mind at all.

 

[luka138]

Conduit from manhole to pole (this is the small manhole on the other corner of the property):
View attachment 293146

And some action happening (this is the pole in the corner of the property and the cable is a 24 core fibre item):
View attachment 293148

View attachment 293150

This is how the Telkom mess looks like and how the new fibre will run:
View attachment 293152

In all the years we have had ****ty ADSL, not once has a Telkom tech ever been near this mess. I think they are scared of it...

This is the pole where the red conduit is peeping out the ground (this is on the pavement in Maroelana Street):
View attachment 293154


I wish I could have gotten more pics, but I did not want to bug the guys.

I thought they were moving infrastructure underground

 

[Bursty-dude]

I thought they were moving infrastructure underground

I reckon in some areas they have no choice but to go overhead like they are doing here.

 

[jcheek]

I thought they were moving infrastructure underground

I reckon in some areas they have no choice but to go overhead like they are doing here.

It's also way, way cheaper to just re-use the existing overhead reticulation inside the housing blocks. They just piggyback the new fibre cables onto the existing (usually rickety) copper lines.

 

[luka138]

I reckon in some areas they have no choice but to go overhead like they are doing here.

Ah. Where I live we'll probably only get fibre in a few years time :/

 

[Bursty-dude]

I was not home from 9am to 4pm today, but when I left this morning, the guys were already going mad at all the poles around here.

I got back and spotted this in the corner of the yard:


Methinks there is some good news for our area soon:




I take it that if our place gets fibre, it will come from this box and then run along the existing copper to the house.

Close up of the black box of tricks:


The Sukumani guys are gone, but I am home tomorrow, so i will fish for info on how long this will still take.

 

[Inertia]

Quick update:

I've been overseas the past week so haven't been able to post. Telkom installed our fibre and also hooked up all our existing copper phone lines over the fibre network. I'll post photos of the installation in the next few days. Persistence does indeed pay off.

 

[jcheek]

View attachment 295832
I take it that if our place gets fibre, it will come from this box and then run along the existing copper to the house.
View attachment 295834

Correct. The so-called "drop cable" (3mm OD) will come from this splice box into your place, either in the air (like in 99% of houses with copper fixed lines), or - if you choose to do so - via buried ducting/conduit. In the latter case, provision of the ducting to the point where you want the ONT to be, will be up to you.

The Sukumani guys are gone, but I am home tomorrow, so i will fish for info on how long this will still take.

The 'flag' is if/when your area shows as dark purple ("available") on the Telkom FTTH coverage map. At that point you can enquire with whichever service provider you've decided to go with, be it Telkom, WebAfrica, MWeb or whoever.
Good luck!

 

[jcheek]

Quick update:

I've been overseas the past week so haven't been able to post. Telkom installed our fibre and also hooked up all our existing copper phone lines over the fibre network. I'll post photos of the installation in the next few days. Persistence does indeed pay off.

Nice going Inertia!
2 weeks from "letter of apology" to "up & running" has got to be some kind of record. Okay, Okay ... record for Telkom ;-)

Amazing what someone with "connections to the Telkom board " can achieve !

 

[Inertia]

Nice going Inertia!
2 weeks from "letter of apology" to "up & running" has got to be some kind of record. Okay, Okay ... record for Telkom ;-)

Amazing what someone with "connections to the Telkom board " can achieve !

It is quite amazing and shocking at the same time. My house and the guy who knows the board members are the only houses connected. Everyone else is pretty much foaming to get connected. I see Telkom's modus operandi. They knew that a private operator was very close to getting my area signed up. So they went into marketing overdrive knowing they didn't have the infrastructure or man power to do any sign ups. But they delayed us signing up Vumatel so I guess they won in the end.

 

[Bursty-dude]

So, the Sukumani dudes are finished with their part of the job on our block. They are waiting for Telkom to "go live" on this section. How long that will take is anyones guess.

They have moved onto the next block up towards Dely Road direction.

 

[Inertia]

My installation (part 1)

Here's the fibre splicing box on the Telkom pole before my installation:



The roll of fibre Telkom brought:



The old copper cables dropping in. The state of these always made me nervous. Notice how the one cable is held by a single clip. It was like this when we moved in:

Getting spliced in:



All done:



Neatened drop cables (no more copper is used but still kept them):

 

[Inertia]

My installation (part 2)

Passive fibre box that splices the outdoor (black) cable to the yellow patch cable that goes to the ONT (don't mind the mess, this is all behind a desk):



Final set-up. I used my existing ADSL router as its got powerful WiFi (much more than that supplied I'm guessing). I don't think you can see it here but the Tel light is on as my existing telephone lines were plugged in here:

The router Telkom supplied that I didn't use:

And there you have it. Pretty basic set-up. However I'm now in the unenviable position of wanting to move my fibre installation to a new location in the house