Fibre internet in Gauteng on Openserve (Telkom) network

[MrSmith]

@jackshiels thanks for the heads up that Vox are now offering Telkom FTTH, yeah money is on DFA for Constantia, their pricing via Vox in Parkview seems best https://www.voxtelecom.co.za/fibre-to-parkview

 

[Toat]

Any advice on 10mb fibre isp for the Brooklyn area Pretoria? :erm:

 

[GammaZor]

So a bit late to the thread.
Also from Faerie Glen (Manitoba str), and I heard a rumor that the first guy got his fiber installed last week. Not 100% sure how true this is, but I saw them slicing some fiber this week and finishing up in the street...

So... yea... Not to give false hope, but maybe we can order fiber soon?

In the meanwhile, my copper line is still pure **** due to that nice congested exchange. Sigh

 

[jcheek]

So a bit late to the thread.
Also from Faerie Glen (Manitoba str),

Welcome to the thread, nearly-neighbour!

... and I heard a rumor that the first guy got his fiber installed last week. Not 100% sure how true this is, but I saw them slicing some fiber this week and finishing up in the street...

So... yea... Not to give false hope, but maybe we can order fiber soon?

I've been speaking to MWeb over the last couple of days. They're aware of Faerie Glen being in the "planned" Telkom FTTH rollout (haha) and are accepting signups at the moment, even though it's uncertain when they'll be able to start delivering service over fibre. They have a deal on until end March whereby you get the Wi-Fi router "free" when you sign up (for 2 years). This is separate from the R1 710 installation fee, which still applies.

So yes, it's starting to happen ...

 

[jcheek]

Details of MWeb FTTH contract

Referring to the pre-approval document that MWeb is using to sign people up for their fibre-based ISP services delivered over Telkom's FTTH infrastructure (see this post) :

As mentioned, the deal includes a Zyxel NBG-418N Wi-Fi router (not NGB-418 - typo in the MWeb document), which they throw in at no charge if you sign up before 31 March 2015.
Whilst the MWeb doc calls this an 'FTTH router', there's actually nothing fibre-specific about this router - it's just a bog-standard router-cum-WAP device. It only has 4 fast-ethernet ports (not Gigabit) and doesn't support the IEEE 802.11ac wireless standard (only 802.11b\g\n), so there's nothing really special about it, either.

From the conversation I had with the MWeb rep, for the areas where FTTH is still shown as 'planned', it sounds like they'll sign you up first, your 'free' router will follow a few weeks later, and then your services will arrive some time after that when the fibre circuit is actually lit up.

 

[Azimuth]

Very exciting for the Faerie Glen guys. I would be beside myself if this happened in my area.

 

[jcheek]

FTTH terminal equipment ?

Can anyone here describe (or maybe post pics of) what the "customer premises" portion of an actual FTTH installation looks like ?

In other words, the part of the installation that goes from the splicing box up on the pole in your back garden ..



... through whatever line(s) the signal is conveyed over, to the endpoint device in your home (presumably some kind of fibre modem) ?

Perhaps one of the folks who were involved in the Telkom FTTH trials can post some pics ?

 

[sirbluepants]

Hi everyone

I'm in Port Elizabeth... of all places who would have thought.. Just a side note, my complex is like 1-2km from the new Bay West City development.

So I had a very interesting phone call from a very friendly lady at Telkom. A month or two ago an external company "Yonke Solutions" came into my complex and started pulling the green conduits through the existing underground pipes in the complex. They then proceeded to connect everything and basically the infrastructure in my complex is done, for about a month now.

I went to Telkom and applied for a normal phone service (in order to get adsl), sounds weird right? Well i was told many moons ago, the infrastructure will be fibre but it will be handled as if it is copper and I'll pay the normal line rental and get a 40mbps "vdsl" line...over fibre?? Anyway - the phone call:

Afer a month of nagging, living off capped axxess dsl mobile, the lady explained to me that we will be lit up by the end of the month(March). It is FTTH. All good and well, untill she smacks me with the pricing..

My numbers might be slightly out, but her words (contradicting the website) after I asked for the cheapest package, incuding:

1. 40Mbps FTTH with
2. 100GB of data including
3. Free modem/router, and
4. FREE installation.

BUT

She said:
* It would take them approximately 2 hours to install the line into my home (luckily we have existing conduits)
* The free installation covers 1 access point, any additional point will incur additional charges. Can't remember how much.
* The free installation is only applicable for 90 minutes (1.5hours) after which additional charge of R420 per hour will be incurred. (So in actual fact then, installation costs R420, seeing as it takes 2 hours, which is mad sales Ts&Cs. And if the techie is lazy I will pay more)


All of this for only... Drum roll please!

R1699 per month for 24 months.


Now, I should be jumping for joy right? I am possibly going to be the first FTTH user in the forgotten windy city..

Well, thruth is, I'm a post grad student. By the time I'm done with my studies, and moved off to Capetown to work at KPMG or something, I'll still be paying for 4 months. On the other side of the pendulum, as someone who was planning on getting 20mbps vox vdsl, with some AH capped data, costing me about 700pm all inclusive... I'd have to sell my organs on the black market to afford this...

Having fibre is great, but I genuinely would have settled for the 20mbps vdsl and data, but my only options are wireless and fibre(which i cannot afford to have, neither price nor contract).

So what now, I ask my fellow myBBs? Does anyone know of future 1. cheaper, 2. non-contract ftth in the pipeline?

If I do sign a 24 month contract e.g. with Vox, then I pay vox the R639 line rental fee, and then get 100GB of data from afrihost for R199. (On another thread one guy with 100mbps ftth, used his AH username and got throttled to 40mbps, so this idea should be possible) This would cost me R839 a month, considering the voice line rental that probably would have taken the vdsl price to this figure, makes this a bit more viable. The 24 month contract is still the issue, and then off course, I wont get free installation, so add R1710 to that figure once off AND I don't think my Zyxel VDSL modem is fibre compatible, so add R600 more for a modem. EISH!

So, should I wait?

My apologies for the long post!

 

[jcheek]

<snip>
Having fibre is great, but I genuinely would have settled for the 20mbps vdsl and data, but my only options are wireless and fibre(which i cannot afford to have, neither price nor contract).

Why are you so quick to dismiss a fixed-wireless option, like 4G/LTE or - if you really can't get 4G - good old 3G ?

So what now, I ask my fellow myBBs? Does anyone know of future 1. cheaper, 2. non-contract ftth in the pipeline?

The big question I guess is .. How much monthly data do you really need ?
If it's less than about 30GB a month, then I would say go for prepaid LTE. You would probably get 20Mbps speeds out the box and 40Mbps with a little more effort. And at R30/GB on Telkom's prepaid LTE deal you would get away with <R1k a month and with no contract commitment. All the while, FTTH will be getting cheaper.

If you really (really) need more than that, then ... you could try asking them for a smaller cap ?
Speeds don't seem to affect the price of FTTH much, but data cap does, down to a marginal rate of around R3/GB.

Personally I'm hoping to see the compulsory 2-year contract period come down to 1 year in the next few months, even if it does mean a slight price premium. But I think it'll take quite a while longer for us to start seeing month-to-month FTTH ...

 

[Bursty-dude]

So maybe, just maybe, by 2020 we will have FTTH by us....

 

[Johnatan56]

So maybe, just maybe, by 2020 we will have FTTH by us....

View attachment 200494

Sorry, where did you get this? I cannot access the apply for the future thing anymore.

 

[MickeyD]

I'm in Port Elizabeth... of all places who would have thought.. Just a side note, my complex is like 1-2km from the new Bay West City development.

It is FTTH. All good and well, untill she smacks me with the pricing...

All correct up to there...

I'm pretty sure she messed up on the pricing. If not, then I would definitely approach one of the other ISPs, who are using Telkom's FTTH product, for a better price.

 

[Bursty-dude]

Sorry, where did you get this? I cannot access the apply for the future thing anymore.

http://www.telkom.co.za/coverage/ftth/index.html

 

[User4456]

Anyone know how we can ensure our complex correctly registers its interest in fibre services? we're right on the freaking edge of planned services according to the coverage map! I'm on the HOA so I can try pull some strings

EDIT: Found this website to register interest but it always returns HTTP 500 error no matter which browser I use. Anyone else manage to get this to work?

 

[jcheek]

EDIT: Found this website to register interest but it always returns HTTP 500 error no matter which browser I use. Anyone else manage to get this to work?

I had no trouble with it using Google Chrome - slow but functional.

Anyone know how we can ensure our complex correctly registers its interest in fibre services? we're right on the freaking edge of planned services according to the coverage map! I'm on the HOA so I can try pull some strings

You could also try sending a mail to ftth@telkom.co.za - I think that's actually more of a support address but they do help (sometimes). There's also a telephone number that goes with that but I can't track it down just at the moment.



Good luck!

 

[Johnatan56]

http://www.telkom.co.za/coverage/ftth/index.html

That is FTTH and not VDSL.
The register interest does not work for me, nor changing the URL you provided. That is why I asked for it, hoping you had a different way off accessing it.

 

[jcheek]

That is FTTH and not VDSL.

Well, both the thread and the context of Bursty-dude's post are FTTH-specific, so ...

 

[Sentinel-1]

AAAhhhh Seriously!

The coverage comes within a few houses of me!

Surely they cant just cover half a street/suburb?

Can they?
Will they?
Dare they?

Tell me they'll fix it! Just tell me!

 

[slvR]

Been a while since I was here. Anyone have their line active yet?

 

[Toat]

They came to install fibre here in menlo park about four weeks ago, but its not activated yet -.-