Fibre internet in Gauteng on Openserve (Telkom) network

[jcheek]

You mentioned the use of Telkom Retail (as both ISP/line), vs other ISPs. Do you, or anyone else, perhaps know if Telkom offer any month-to-month fibre packages? Browsing their site, I've only seen mention of 24-month contracts when it comes to their line/data packages ...

As far as I'm aware, Telkom Retail only offers fibre broadband to standalone residential customers on a 2-year contract basis at the moment. (Perhaps someone else has more info and will jump in here ?)

As to the reason, I suspect the fixed cost per node far exceeds the ±R1750 installation cost that Openserve charges, so they need the 2-year commitment to recover the cost. It might be that the independent ISPs are happy to commit to a fixed number of lines even though individual subscribers may come and go, hence the availability of month-to-month options from some of them. They will sometimes charge for installation and the router if you don't commit for a minimum period, but that cost is well worth the freedom of choice you get in exchange (IMHO).

Being inside a gated community, though, you may be in luck with a month-to-month scheme with Telkom.
Depending on what terms your BC/HOA negotiated with Telkom/Openseve, the continuation options available to you might differ from those available to a standalone residential customers.
To illustrate : the following is an extract from the "continuation" application form made available to one of the gated communities in Pretoria :



There's nothing else in that form that commits to a 2-year period, so if you don't take the "free" router and the installation cost has already been picked up by the HOA, then a month-to-month arrangement results. Your circumstances may differ, but it's worth asking detailed questions of your own HOA.

 

[BigBear]

Got an SMS from Telkom Boltspeed Fibre R549 pm 4mbps 40gb Soft Cap incl Router and Installation..
Also Two Phone Calls from MWEB ..

Fibre is in our street but not on our side yet ...

No response so far from Query logged with Openserve/Telkom..

 

[HumanShield]

Hoping someone has said something about this.

So they've started trenching in my complex for fibre, it's still going to be a while until it comes to the houses and it gets lit but I want to know my options regarding lines.

I understand that you have to take a fibre line on contract, which is fine but it gets bundled with data which i'm not too happy about. Is it possible to just get the fibre line as a stand alone product or do I have no choice but to take the line with the smallest data cap available and use my preferred ISP?

If this has been covered elsewhere I do apologise.

 

[jcheek]

Hoping someone has said something about this.

So they've started trenching in my complex for fibre, it's still going to be a while until it comes to the houses and it gets lit but I want to know my options regarding lines.

I understand that you have to take a fibre line on contract, which is fine but it gets bundled with data which i'm not too happy about. Is it possible to just get the fibre line as a stand alone product or do I have no choice but to take the line with the smallest data cap available and use my preferred ISP?

If this has been covered elsewhere I do apologise.

Hi HumanShield

At the moment I'm aware of two ISPs that offer a "naked fibre" (line-only) product, or something close to it (someone else might chip in here if they know of others) :

• Axxess : see here. Example : 20Mbps line for R599pm
• ISPAfrika : see here. They seem to be promoting their uncapped fibre product more, but they do also do capped products. Example : 20Mbps line for R549pm (last time I checked), which includes 10GB of data, so it's pretty close to naked fibre.

Check out this post for some more details and follow links from there if you want.

 

[HumanShield]

Hi HumanShield

At the moment I'm aware of two ISPs that offer a "naked fibre" (line-only) product, or something close to it (someone else might chip in here if they know of others) :

• Axxess : see here. Example : 20Mbps line for R599pm
• ISPAfrika : see here. They seem to be promoting their uncapped fibre product more, but they do also do capped products. Example : 20Mbps line for R549pm (last time I checked), which includes 10GB of data, so it's pretty close to naked fibre.

Check out this post for some more details and follow links from there if you want.

Thanks this is pretty much what I was looking for. Looks like Axxess is the best bet for now. It's still a while since things get rolling but I cant contain my excitement.

 

[jacosmit]

guys, I see CrystalWeb has once again come out (almost) on top with MyBBs broadband survey. Does anyone have experience with them?

 

[Johnatan56]

guys, I see CrystalWeb has once again come out (almost) on top with MyBBs broadband survey. Does anyone have experience with them?

Since OpenServe fiber, it should be similar to: https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showth...SL-performance-feedback-thread-Part-3/page582

 

[LukeKroon]

I live in Brooklyn area where there is fibre coverage, however the technician says there is no fibre infrastructure on our telephone pole. They have to wait for the contractors to install the network first. Do you guys know how long that takes ? The technician even said that they started rolling out fibre in our area LONG ago and that it should've been installed by now. Openserve by the way....

 

[jcheek]

The technician arrived today only to inform me that there is no fibre on the pole at the edge of my property. Im situated in the "dark purple" coverage area in Brooklyn but apparently that is a lie. LIES!!. The technician told me he is going to follow up with his boss and maybe they can get the fibre closer (to the pole where the current ADSL is connected) for an installation "soon".

I'd suggest logging the issue directly with OpenServe as KantSnyer described here.
The fact that there's a discrepancy between published coverage and actual coverage might trigger a quick response, especially since the area's had fibre for so long.
Don't rely on "informal" communication from the installation teams to the decision-makers. Rather log it officially.

I live in Brooklyn area where there is fibre coverage, however the technician says there is no fibre infrastructure on our telephone pole. They have to wait for the contractors to install the network first. Do you guys know how long that takes ?

If you do get a positive response from logging the issue with OpenServe, I'd still bargain on a good 3 to 6 months before you're able to order :-(

The technician even said that they started rolling out fibre in our area LONG ago and that it should've been installed by now. Openserve by the way....

True ... if you look at the OP, you'll see that Brooklyn was one of the first areas in Pretoria to get OpenServe fibre, back in Jan 2015.

 

[KingBel]

Checked the coverage map. Still nothing at my address.. took a chance and clicked on neighboring complex. Every complex around me is covered for fibre.. they just skipped ours for some reason

 

[jcheek]

Referring to this:

Speaking of recent connections in "newly-purple" areas, is anyone on the thread aware of people who've just gone live with Openserve FTTH on the south-west side (ie the Wingate Park Country Club side) of Jacques Street, Moreleta Park, Pretoria ?

An update :

The whole of Jacques Street went active. They are coming to install/check mine tomorrow.

 

[Aluroth]

Anyone knows if there is something special an Estate must do if your area is under the planned ares to request Fibre? Or is it also just the waiting game?

 

[Geoff.D]

Anyone knows if there is something special an Estate must do if your area is under the planned ares to request Fibre? Or is it also just the waiting game?

No, sitting back and just waiting does not work. You need to make a move and contact possible FTTH suppliers covering your area.

 

[jcheek]

Anyone knows if there is something special an Estate must do if your area is under the planned areas to request Fibre? Or is it also just the waiting game?

Since you landed in this thread, we assume you're referring to the Openserve/Telkom fibre network.
That being the case, I wouldn't suggest just playing the waiting game. You may be lucky and have things just happen, but it's best to be pro-active and try to avoid your estate being overlooked. Provision of a fibre backbone inside an estate requires BC/HOA approval and nothing will happen unless/until that's in place.

First speak to your Body Corporate / Homeowners' Association and find out what arrangements (if any) they have negotiated with fibre network operator(s) for provision of fibre infrastructure within your estate. From the background given, it sounds likely that you're inside the Openserve 'Planned' area, so perhaps they've already had discussions with Openserve, however there might be other network options (Vumatel, Frogfoot etc) in the area.

If nothing's been done by the BC/HOA, then you could kickstart the process and least get a Telkom/Openserve option on the table by approaching Telkom's "Gated Community Services" (GCS) as described in Post #606.

You could also log a ticket with Openserve (= Telkom Wholesale) as described here and see if that gets you anywhere. But I'd suggest approaching Telkom GCS first.

 

[Aluroth]

Since you landed in this thread, we assume you're referring to the Openserve/Telkom fibre network.
That being the case, I wouldn't suggest just playing the waiting game. You may be lucky and have things just happen, but it's best to be pro-active and try to avoid your estate being overlooked. Provision of a fibre backbone inside an estate requires BC/HOA approval and nothing will happen unless/until that's in place.

First speak to your Body Corporate / Homeowners' Association and find out what arrangements (if any) they have negotiated with fibre network operator(s) for provision of fibre infrastructure within your estate. From the background given, it sounds likely that you're inside the Openserve 'Planned' area, so perhaps they've already had discussions with Openserve, however there might be other network options (Vumatel, Frogfoot etc) in the area.

If nothing's been done by the BC/HOA, then you could kickstart the process and least get a Telkom/Openserve option on the table by approaching Telkom's "Gated Community Services" (GCS) as described in Post #606.

You could also log a ticket with Openserve (= Telkom Wholesale) as described here and see if that gets you anywhere. But I'd suggest approaching Telkom GCS first.

Thanks for the feedback. I've contacted the BC and they haven't heard any from Telkom/Openserve's side, but are also very interested. I'll try and contact Telkom's GCS.

 

[LukeKroon]

Anyone here with Afrihost ? My line just got activated and noted that there is no Data statistics on the clientzone. I have NO idea how much data i am using and they say they are still implementing the feature, dont know when it will be finished. Pfffft.

 

[jcheek]

I live in Brooklyn area where there is fibre coverage, however the technician says there is no fibre infrastructure on our telephone pole. They have to wait for the contractors to install the network first.

They came to my house and there was no black fibre box on our pole. 2 weeks later they pulled a cable from 3 properties down the street just for our installation. It was openserve.

My line just got activated ...

I gather from your other posts that you ordered through Afrihost, and that you're now sorted ?
Out of interest, what worked for you ? Did you bug Afrihost or Openserve, or did Openserve sort things out without intervention from you ?

 

[creeper]

A quick update. It seems Telkom updated their coverage map for PTA. Looks like Equestria is mostly covered

 

[supersunbird]

OpenServe called, they will be installing tomorrow afternoon. We do have the black box on our pole, so that's good.

 

[LukeKroon]

It was quite a process:

I ordered through Afrihost middle of January.

Two weeks later the Telkom technician arrived to give me the news that there is no infrastructure. I got the reference number from Afrihost to start bugging Openserve.

Before i could even start doing that another technician arrived at my home, only to tell me the same thing, there is no infrastructure, he cant give me an ETA because the contractors need to install the black fibre box thingy on the pole.

With that bad news i cancelled my order with Afrihost and accepted defeat.

AND THEN last week 4 technicians arrived at my house, unannounced. Luckily there was someone to open the gate for them. They went three houses down the road to connect the fibre, and pulled it over 3 poles into our house. I got the B***** number (Fibre number) from them and signed up for a new package with Afrihost, only this time with an existing line.

Afrihost didn't know what the hell was going on, every time i phoned them they said i have to wait for the line to be activated and I told them it already is ! Last night i phoned them again and this one kind lady gave me my access details, popped it in the router and there it was, internet but not the speed i ordered. I am still busy trying sort out my wrong bill and to bump up the speed. They are CLEARLY not used to the whole fibre thing. They still need to implement data stats on their website. Not that impressed at all. Hope afriman reads this actually.

Anyway, to answer your question, it was all Openserve. Even after i cancelled with Afrihost, openserve came and installed the line. Bunch of nice guys and they work really quick WHEN you get them at your premises! Good luck !