Fibre internet in Gauteng on Openserve (Telkom) network

[Bursty-dude]

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

What roads in Menlo Park?

 

[Toat]

1st and 2nd street

 

[Bursty-dude]

1st and 2nd street

Thanks.
That is still quite far from me. I am down past 22nd Avenue

 

[HumanShield]

So something interesting is happening close to me. Last week they started digging up trenches close to my complex. like about 250m away. Today i see a big reel of blue cable. I'm sure this is fiber. I haven't had a closer look yet, I will when I get a chance.

Does each company that lays fiber have a different colour? If so, who is blue? I'm guessing its Telkom. Also this is in Eldoraigne. No where near the shaded area on Telkom's coverage map.

 

[jcheek]

So something interesting is happening close to me. Last week they started digging up trenches close to my complex. like about 250m away. Today i see a big reel of blue cable. I'm sure this is fiber. I haven't had a closer look yet, I will when I get a chance.

Does each company that lays fiber have a different colour? If so, who is blue? I'm guessing its Telkom. Also this is in Eldoraigne. No where near the shaded area on Telkom's coverage map.

Hi HumanShield

It's possible you may be seeing not the fibre cable itself, but rather a roll of the hollow, coloured polyethylene sub-duct that the fibre cable is pulled through. Have a look at the link for Duraline / Nextube's "Optex" product, about halfway down the text in this post and you'll see what I mean.

Different operators (Neotel, DFA, Telkom etc) do sometimes seem to choose different colours for the sub-duct, but I'm not aware of any specific standards - the Telkom sub-ducts in my area are red.

 

[HumanShield]

Hi HumanShield

It's possible you may be seeing not the fibre cable itself, but rather a roll of the hollow, coloured polyethylene sub-duct that the fibre cable is pulled through. Have a look at the link for Duraline / Nextube's "Optex" product, about halfway down the text in this post and you'll see what I mean.

Different operators (Neotel, DFA, Telkom etc) do sometimes seem to choose different colours for the sub-duct, but I'm not aware of any specific standards - the Telkom sub-ducts in my area are red.

Thanks for replying so quickly.

Yeah the sub-ducting they're using for your area is red, which is why i'm a little confused now. I'll go and take a closer look tomorrow and I'll see whats what.

Funny thing with the red sub-ducting is that a few months ago they were digging up trenches for what i thought was fiber(red cables) turned out it was actual copper cables for the street lamps But this is different.

One more thing. With the fiber lines would they need to upgrade the telkom box outside the property? Not sure whats the correct technical term for it.

 

[MickeyD]

@HS, stop and ask them! They should have a sign somewhere (even on the truck) indicating that they are a contractor for Telkom or Vodacom or DFA, etc.

 

[HumanShield]

Hi MickeyD

I've checked. Drove up and down the road. No sign or anything. Guys digging up dont know anything and there was no supervisor to be found. Its frustrating

 

[MickeyD]

Hi MickeyD

I've checked. Drove up and down the road. No sign or anything. Guys digging up dont know anything and there was no supervisor to be found. Its frustrating

Another possible reason is to install metro-ethernet links (via fibre) to the Eldoraigne exchange, which I understand has severe congestion issues.

 

[HumanShield]

I haven't really experienced really bad packet loss or high pings. But i'm not that much of a gamer either. On the other hand it does bog down in the evenings.

 

[Bursty-dude]

There is some work commencing about 200m from our place.
On the corner of 22nd/Maroelana streets and Hazelwood in Menlo Park, the beginnings of a trench have been dug.
I saw a DFA truck standing there and I seriously hope that this means that we can soon get fibre. We are in Maroelana street.

Quite a few spots down Hazelwood road have small holes dug already.
I think the fibre network is expanding down from the Waterkloof area.

 

[jcheek]

Alcatel-Lucent FTTH endpoint device

For those who - like me - are interested in what the actual Telkom FTTH installations and hardware look like (as in this request here), user Bosvark posted this pic in a related thread from Durban :

The fibre cable runs into this device. From here it connects to a WAN port on compatible router via usual network Cat5 or Cat6 cable.

View attachment 203464

 

[User4456]

For those who - like me - are interested in what the actual FTTH installations and hardware look like (as in this request here), user Bosvark posted this pic in a related thread from Durban :

Man that pic really doesn't show anything. AFAIK the fibre link comes into your house and connects via an SFP port in your fibre-capable modem (which you should absolutely be putting into bridge mode btw). Then it's out the wan port to your real router which tunnels a PPPoE connection via the modem.

 

[jcheek]

Well, in essence the device in that picture *is* the fibre-capable modem, as I understand it.
The green cable at the top right corner would be the fibre input cable that terminates (presumably) into something like a conventional SFP transceiver module in the modem.

The output from this Alcatel-Lucent device is effectively a WAN gateway onto the internet backbone which can then be plugged into whatever combo router/WAP/switch device you plan to use.
There's really nothing special about the downstream WAN-to-LAN router, it could be routing from an xDSL modem, 3G or 4G/LTE modem, fibre modem or whatever. The router that MWeb plans to bundle is described here.

 

[User4456]

Yes the one in the picture might be the fibre modem, but doesn't show the ports nicely; it does look like the green incoming is the fibre link tho. The bundled fibre modems are all gonna be so crap as routers. I would just grab a cheap fibre modem, turn it from a smart device into a dumb one by switching into bridge mode. Then straight into your private home network.

 

[aborg]

Kudos for Telkom trying to roll out FTTH. Had several looks at areas where Telkom is rolling out fibre in residential areas in Gauteng on there poles and the installation quality looks crappy at best compared to trenched fibre. Wonder what QC is done by Telkom on the 3rd party installers?

 

[jcheek]

... Had several looks at areas where Telkom is rolling out fibre in residential areas in Gauteng on there poles and the installation quality looks crappy at best compared to trenched fibre.

In my area at least, it's a combination of both techniques : underground in the streets, breaking out onto aerial distribution (piggybacked on the old analogue lines) inside the residential blocks. From seeing some of the trenching "techniques" used, I think I actually have more confidence in the aerial stuff!
On Telkom's trenched routes, I think fibre twists/breakages could be an issue initially, and progressive water damage due to poor drainage later on. I guess time will tell.
Or do you mean Telkom's installation quality in relation to other (trenched) providers ?

Wonder what QC is done by Telkom on the 3rd party installers?

Me too ... :wtf:
At least in some other Telkom FTTH areas, it seems there are already some initial teething problems.

 

[aborg]

Or do you mean Telkom's installation quality in relation to other (trenched) providers ?

Yip, other providers are doing it better than Telkom, probably because they don't have the money to do it twice. This is where QC will save/make you money in the long run.

Like you said, saw a lot of badly twisted fibre cables and very shoddy terminations.

 

[jcheek]

... probably because they don't have the money to do it twice.
This is where QC will save/make you money in the long run.

I couldn't agree more, with both sentiments!

 

[MickeyD]

Yip, other providers are doing it better than Telkom, probably because they don't have the money to do it twice. This is where QC will save/make you money in the long run.

Like you said, saw a lot of badly twisted fibre cables and very shoddy terminations.

If there's a fault on the new cable within a specified time frame then the contractor has to re-install at his own cost.

There is QC.

There are ILO's.

Every cable installed is tested by Telkom staff.