Fibre internet in Gauteng on Openserve (Telkom) network

[jcheek]

YES! For the first time in 40 days I have a green light.

Technician doing the activation now.

Yee-haaa ! Very happy for you. ***k knows, you deserve it!

Ironically it seems as if it might have been the same (or very similar) problem. They just found a fibre which was live and used that one (even though the technician tested a fibre from each tube!!)

So either he could
1) Tried splicing every fibre in every tube until they get a live one
2) Wait 20 days for the "jointers" team to come and test with a power meter

It does seem that every guy had one when they did your installation, jcheek. Or did you have two guys?

My team was two guys, although when this difficulty (wrong tube joined out in the street) arose, they left the fibre-tester in place - presumably shining some visible light down the fibre - and both guys and went off In Search Of The Light somewhere in the street.

PS : I'm sure you'll do it anyway , but please post your Speedtest result as soon as you get your PPPoE login details from WebAfrica (?). I need your upload speed as further ammo in The Fight For 50% Upload Speed with WebAfrica :crylaugh:

 

[APoc184]

YES! For the first time in 40 days I have a green light.

Technician doing the activation now.

Awesome. Enjoy!

 

[ebendl]

PS : I'm sure you'll do it anyway , but please post your Speedtest result as soon as you get your PPPoE login details from WebAfrica (?). I need your upload speed as further ammo in The Fight For 50% Upload Speed with WebAfrica :crylaugh:

Of course Just WhatsApp'd WebAfrica, they'll send login details in 5...

 

[Koosie]

Yee-haaa ! Very happy for you. ***k knows, you deserve it!



My team was two guys, although when this difficulty (wrong tube joined out in the street) arose, they left the fibre-tester in place - presumably shining some visible light down the fibre - and both guys and went off In Search Of The Light somewhere in the street.

PS : I'm sure you'll do it anyway , but please post your Speedtest result as soon as you get your PPPoE login details from WebAfrica (?). I need your upload speed as further ammo in The Fight For 50% Upload Speed with WebAfrica :crylaugh:

Im currently on the 4mbps uncapped home package waiting for the upgrade to 10mbps,

But at the moment im getting 4down and 2up

 

[ebendl]

Of course Just WhatsApp'd WebAfrica, they'll send login details in 5...

Local (auto):


2nd test (about 5 min later, auto):


International (random server in London)


So JCheeck, I'd say that's 50 Mbps up?

Down is a bit disappointing. It starts off at 90+ then in the middle it hits a speedbump and falls down to 50+. Shaping?

 

[jcheek]

So jcheek, I'd say that's 50 Mbps up?

I'd say so!
I assume then you're on a nominal 100Mbps package from WebAfrica ?

Down is a bit disappointing. It starts off at 90+ then in the middle it hits a speedbump and falls down to 50+.

Yeah, that's much the same as my 100Mbps experience with WebAfrica/Openserve.
Although I'm only contracted for a 40Mbps service with WebAfrica, currently I have a (temporary) 100Mbps connection (more on this later). The "100Mbps" download varies quite a lot - typically from about 60 to 102Mbps - whereas the upload speed is pretty constant at the nominal value.
The download speed also seems much more stable on the sub-100Mbps packages. Which is to be expected, I guess.

Shaping?

From the behaviour of the graph during the speedtest, there is some serious bandwidth-management happening somewhere along the chain!

This is what I get as of a few minutes ago (local, designated server) :



Still working on WebAfrica to get my upload speed up to 50% ...

 

[ebendl]

Yup, 100mbps 200 GB. The OpenServe installer almost activated me for 10 Mbps as his notes somehow dropped a zero since he was here to previously! Luckily he could find the previous notes he made.

WebAfrica was quick to send through the login details.

I'll monitor the speed, but still, its awesome opening YouTube, finding a 4K video and hitting play and it just starts instantly.

I also chatted to one of the "jointers" who came with the power meter. Apparently they've been told to solve all issues in Pretoria East before the end of Dec. The network freeze is from the 22nd (although it to sounds more like they are just closing for annual holidays). So they're supposed to come out much more often to customer premises over the next two or three weeks.

 

[jcheek]

The OpenServe installer almost activated me for 10Mbps as his notes somehow dropped a zero ...

Ha! deja vu :

9:50 Found the problem, profile was set to 2Mbps, change the 2 to 20Mbps (2048 vs 20480, probably a mistype when order was entered)
10:07 20mbps and everything looks good.

Pity they don't seem to add zeroes ever ....

 

[ebendl]

Ha! deja vu :

Pity they don't seem to add zeroes ever ....

I told the guy just add two to the 10 but he just laughed...

 

[jacosmit]

Were still in the light purple/pink area. Guessing Openserve/Huawei/Telkom all have shutdown installations until February.

 

[jacosmit]

Hi Guys

I see Level-7 is charging line rental for their FTTH, http://www.level-7.co.za/fibre/#fibrepricehome.

Correct me if I am wrong, but FTTH does not have line rental or do they just break their costs up to make their packages look cheap.

 

[jcheek]

Hi Guys
I see Level-7 is charging line rental for their FTTH, http://www.level-7.co.za/fibre/#fibrepricehome.

Looks they're offering services over several different fibre networks, including their own ("On-Net FFTH") and Openserve's.

For example :
Level-7 over own network, 10Mbps/10Mbps, uncapped, shaped : R900pm (all in, line rental + data)
Level-7 over Openserve, 10Mbps/5Mbps, uncapped, shaped : R768pm (line rental + data)

For (arbitrary) comparison:
ISPAfrika over Openserve, , 10Mbps/5Mbps, uncapped, shaped : R799pm (line rental + data) ( source )
Axxess over Openserve, , 10Mbps/5Mbps, uncapped, shaped : R779pm (line rental + data) ( source )

Correct me if I am wrong, but FTTH does not have line rental or do they just break their costs up to make their packages look cheap.

In most pricing models it does, certainly in Openserve's case.
On the Uncapped packages both the line rental and the data charge are dependent on line speed, so it makes sense (arguably) to combine them. But as in the case of the Level-7 / Openserve Home Uncapped pricing, the rental is still shown separately (R469 rental + R299 uncapped data, both @ 10Mbps).

 

[ebendl]

So how's everybody's OpenServe lines holding up?

Mine still going strong: no disconnections, download speeds seems similar to what it was. Upload seems a bit lower though - my CrashPlan backups running from 0:15 to 5:45 seems a bit slower and speedtests don't show +- 45 Mbps any more. I also managed to set up OpenVPN and dynamic DNS so that I can VPN into my home network.

Speeds to Pretoria:



MyBB test to Capetown:

To London:



US speeds seem useless tonight (getting 5 down).

 

[jacosmit]

Still waiting for QA apparently. Hopefully this time in January I will be on a 10Mbps solution.

 

[APoc184]

At freaking last.

After 6 attempts they finally managed to get the Black Box installed and the day after, the actual FTTH. 2 of the managers had to come with to supervise on the day of the black box installation to make sure they get it done this time.

Got my login details from ISPAfrika 30min later and later that night I was running at full 10mbps down and 5mbps up speeds.

Glitchy ADSL line canceled. Yay!

 

[jcheek]

At freaking last.

After 6 attempts they finally managed to get the Black Box installed and the day after, the actual FTTH. 2 of the managers had to come with to supervise on the day of the black box installation to make sure they get it done this time.

Got my login details from ISPAfrika 30min later and later that night I was running at full 10mbps down and 5mbps up speeds.

Congrats, APoc184 ! That's EPic ! ;-)
You must be thrilled to have decent internet in time for Christmas

So even with the (many!) repeat visits, that's a little under a month from "dark purple" to "live". Pretty good going - that looks like another win for ISPAfrika and Garth !

Did you go with the 10Mbps uncapped option from ISPAfrika as you originally planned, or are you still using supplementary data from Vox ?

Edit : I see you're in Garsfontein X10. I don't know the extensions of Garsfontein all that well - where is that, more or less ?

 

[APoc184]

Very happy indeed.

I could hear the sigh of relief in Garth's mail when I let him know that the installation has actually been completed successfully this time. He was getting so frustrated with the incompetence of the techies to read a simple job card.

He did so much effort and escalation from his side. Pretty sure I would never have gotten it without his persistent nagging to the OpenServe service manager.

I got the 10mbps uncapped offer from Garth.

Looking to get Showmax or similar for the wife and kids. I'm not a TV watcher but they do watch a fair bit and with a stable line we can finally consider a streaming service. Was impossible with my ADSL.

 

[supersunbird]

Edit : I see you're in Garsfontein X10. I don't know the extensions of Garsfontein all that well - where is that, more or less ?

The dog name streets...

 

[APoc184]

The dog name streets...

Correct yes. Retriever Street to be exact if you want to check the map.

 

[supersunbird]

Correct yes. Retriever Street to be exact if you want to check the map.

x5 still light purple...