Fibre internet in Gauteng on Openserve (Telkom) network

[jcheek]

That orange/blue is sheathing around the actual glass fiber, it also gets stripped before a splice is made.

Indeed it is. Here's a stripped-down view :



Yes, those are 1mm graduations you see on the ruler on the right ... this stuff is tiny !
The diameter of this naked little fibre ? 0.12mm, just somewhat larger than an average human hair.

 

[jcheek]

I am covered according to the Telkom map and I have had my fibre installed by Telkom through Web Africa so I would trust Telkoms more.

Agreed.

I see from your posts in this thread that you've just been through the WebAfrica FTTH mill.
Which area are you in, tanka ?
Edit: Upper Houghton, I see.

For those watching this (Pretoria) thread, this post gives quite a nice overview of a Telkom-based FTTH installation done through Web Africa.

 

[Fintan]

Does anyone have any additional information on when the Faerie Glen roll out will continue. I'm on Ajax road in Olympus, which is a couple blocks away from the Midas ave installation.

 

[jcheek]

More on Telkom's "in-home" FTTH cable

Markings on the cable. All I can make out is Telkom FTTH.

Thanks for that added pic !
My guess is that the first two markings could be "TELKOM CBI", referring to the range of fibre optic cables produced by CBI / Aberdare and fleetingly described here.

The text a bit further along could be G.657A2, a reference to the ITU-T G.657 A2 cable standard which CBI describes as "bend-insensitive single mode fibre".


Edit: Yup, it's confirmed, that cable is indeed made by CBI/Aberdare for Telkom. According to CBI, it's a "dual-purpose" cable, intended for both aerial and ducted installation.

For those interested in the technicalities, a PDF datasheet is attached, from which the following pic was snipped:


( One hopes that CBI counts fibres more accurately during production than they do when drawing up a datasheet )

Here are some technical highlights :

• It operates in the 1.3µm to 1.6µm range (infra-red).
• Operating temperature range is -10°C to +70°C.
• The outer sheath is UV-stabilised, so in theory it is fine for long-term outdoor exposure in full sunlight.
• The yellow fibres are indeed Aramid (as reported by biena), of which Du Pont's "Kevlar" is the most well-known example.
• The clear inner sub-duct is indeed polycarbonate (plastic).
• The minimum recommended bend radius (long-term)is in fact 48mm - even gentler than the 40mm I estimated! In the short term, bends down to 38mm can be tolerated.
• Maximum permissible pull-strain is 25kg (during installation) and 10kg (permanent).
• It's rated to survive 35 bend cycles.

According to CBI, this "dual-purpose" cable has been phased out in favour of two different cables that are "optimised" for the two different types of Telkom installation.

PS: If you're interested, have fun reading up on the interesting properties of "thixotropic gels".

 

[jcheek]

Summary of the WebAfrica-over-Telkom FTTH product offerings

Following on from this post which referred to the launch of the WebAfrica-over-Telkom FTTH product, this post attempts to be a summary of resources relating to the WebAfrica FTTH product offering, along with some comment.

Note that since the initial Telkom-based product offering, WebAfrica have since started to offer a 10Mbps "entry-level" option to complement the 20, 40 and 100Mbps packages originally launched in Jan/Feb 2015.

• WebAfrica FTTH product homepage : here
• WebAfrica FTTH coverage checker : here. Note: some discrepancies have been noted between FTTH coverage as shown on the WebAfrica and Telkom coverage checkers. Since Telkom is the ultimate carrier, always check your result with the Telkom coverage checker here.
• WebAfrica general T's & C's : here
• WebAfrica FTTH-specific T's & C's : View attachment 20150209 Web Africa - FTTH-specific T's & C's (Draft 2).pdf

Note that the FTTH-specific T's & C's are not directly available on the WebAfrica website at the moment. The document I've attached is what they're currently asking their new subscribers to sign. I note that the document is named as a "Draft" ("Draft 2 dated 9 Feb 2015"), so the content may change as time goes by.

So for those who take some notice of the "fine print", here are some of the salient points of the FTTH-specific T's & C's as I understand them :

1. The monthly "line rental fee" is separated from the monthly "data package" fee. (Currently, there are 10, 20, 40 and 100Mbps line speed options, at monthly fees of R539, R639, R739 and R849 respectively).
2. The data package is treated as a "bolt-on" option in addition to the line rental. (Currently, there are data packages ranging from 40 to 400 GB per month, with an added "midnight data" allowance of 4 times your daytime allowance).
3. Provided you keep WebAfrica as your service provider, you can change data packages (ie take more or less data per month) at will, without cost implication (obviously the applicable data package fee will change).
4. If you change the "Service Option" (eg to a higher or lower line speed), then you will be liable for the new line rental fee (obviously), plus a once-off "re-grading" fee (currently R199). (clause 4.2)
5. If you keep your fibre line, but change to another service provider (like Vox, or Telkom), you remain liable to Web Africa for the line rental fee, which will then increase somewhat (currently the increase is +R100 per month). (clause 4.9)
6. If you sign as a juristic person (eg the contract is taken out in the name of a company), then you are "not allowed" to cancel the contract within the initial 2-year period. You remain liable for the line rental fee for the full 2-year period. (clause 2.2)
7. If you sign as a natural person (ie as an individual), then you may cancel the contract by giving 20 business day's notice, but .... you remain liable for the line rental fee for the remaining part of the 2-year period. (There is a provision for this to be reduced (possibly) in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, but worst-case ... you're liable for the full amount). (clause 2.3)
8. Just like ADSL, Web Africa classifies FTTH as a "best-effort" service and the T's & C's give absolutely no guarantee of any quality of service, speed, or uptime. (clause 5.1)
9. If you move house, you have the option to cede the contract to the new owner, or move the point of service to your new address in order to honour the 2-year commitment. In the latter case, the move is subject to FTTH coverage and feasibility (as assessed by Telkom) and you would have to carry a re-location charge, but there's no other penalty. Failing both those options .. you would remain liable for the balance of the 2-year period. (clauses 4.3 through 4.8)

Pros and Cons of the WebAfrica offering (all completely my opinion) :

Pros:

1. The separation of line speed from data packages is nice as it gives quite a bit of flexibility.
2. The ability to change data packages freely is great. It's also nice that you're able to change line speeds (aka upgrade or downgrade) and they've made the associated cost known up front.
3. The range of line speeds (10 through 100Mbs) and data packages (40 through 400GB per month) is nice.
4. They have at least given some thought to the situation where you might need to move house, and provided for the possibility to either move the service to a new address (subject to coverage) or cede it to a new owner.
5. They've provided for the situation where you want to move data ISP's (ie away from WebAfrica) and made that possible, albeit at a small premium (R100pm additional on line rental).

Cons:

1. Whilst they call it an "agreement", as agreements go it's rather one-sided. It's not so much an agreement as a list of T's & C's, many of which favour WebAfrica over the client.
2. Whilst we all understand that they're at Telkom's mercy, the complete lack of any commitment to any service level (speed or uptime) is concerning.
3. Worst-case, if you need to cancel the service, you remain liable for the line rental for the remaining term of the initial 2-year contract. To be fair, that's probably the same as any other Telkom-based ISP.
4. It's not clear to me why they draw a distinction between a company and an individual as regards allowing contract cancellation within the first 2 years. The financial implications are identical.

As a general comment, WebAfrica's FTTH-specific contract is one of the more coherent ones I've looked at. By comparison, the Telkom one is pretty vague and I've not yet succeeded in even getting one out of MWeb or Vox.

 

[biena]

The monthly "line rental fee" is separated from the monthly "data package" fee. (Currently, there are 10, 20, 40 and 100Mbps line speed options, at monthly fees of R539, R639, R739 and R849 respectively).

As you said its a draft and they really need to update it ASAP before confusion starts.

10GB + 4Mbps Fibre Line R199
100GB + 4Mbps Fibre Line R349

The 4Mbps is not even mentioned in the draft document.

Overall looks pretty nice but one-sided in their favour. Documents is at least coherent and not a mishmash of halfway adapted DSL documents like Telkom.

thixotropic gels

So when you pull the cable the gel is like water, this allows the glass fiber to move a bit in the hollow tube. Finally when the cable is in place and stable then the gel solidifies and supports the glass fiber. Interesting technology.

 

[jcheek]

The 4Mbps is not even mentioned in the draft document.

As far as I know, the 4Mbps option is only available in areas where WebAfrica offers services over Vumatel's fibre infrastructure (as opposed to Telkom's). If you use the selector tool to narrow down the area (eg to Faerie Glen, for example), then it narrows the choice of provider down to just one (Telkom) and the 4Mbps/10GB option isn't offered.

I was also amused at these comments/disclaimers at the bottom of WebAfrica's Vumatel- and Telkom-based FTTH product pages :

(Vumatel) : "Speeds : Close to max line speed throughout the whole day and night"
(Telkom) : "Speeds : Telkom Fibre lines rarely achieve full speeds (This is out of Webafrica's control)"

 

[biena]

As far as I know, the 4Mbps option is only available in areas where WebAfrica offers services over Vumatel's fibre infrastructure (as opposed to Telkom's). If you use the selector tool to narrow down the area (eg to Faerie Glen, for example), then it narrows the choice of provider down to just one (Telkom) and the 4Mbps/10GB option isn't offered.

Ah that explains the Vumatel option, should still be mentioned.

(Telkom) : "Speeds : Telkom Fibre lines rarely achieve full speeds (This is out of Webafrica's control)"

I am not amused by it, more irritated. Smells like a underhanded smear tactic.

 

[tanka]

(Telkom) : "Speeds : Telkom Fibre lines rarely achieve full speeds (This is out of Webafrica's control)"

Going to be extremely annoyed if I have speed issues on my fibre and Web Africa just points to this.

 

[Luffy]

I am also consider for FTTH, what will the speed be after 50Gb of soft cap?

is it very slow after using up the soft caps?

thank you

 

[jcheek]

Going to be extremely annoyed if I have speed issues on my fibre and Web Africa just points to this.

Mmmm ... agree.
That said, it's only going to be an issue if it's going to be an issue !

You've had your WebAfrica-over-Telkom fibre connection for some 2 weeks now. Granted it's still very early days, but what's been your experience so far ? Have you had any outages ? Do you see any sign of your line performance dipping down from its nominal value at certain times of the day, night or week ?

 

[jcheek]

I am also consider for FTTH, what will the speed be after 50Gb of soft cap?
is it very slow after using up the soft caps?

We'll only find this out from someone who's specifically on Telkom's FTTH package (ie fibre line and ISP services both from Telkom) with the SoftCap feature. The other ISP's all have "hard" caps that require you to buy data booster(s) when you hit your limit.

We'll have to wait for biena to hit his cap this month and report back to us ...

 

[biena]

We'll only find this out from someone who's specifically on Telkom's FTTH package (ie fibre line and ISP services both from Telkom) with the SoftCap feature. The other ISP's all have "hard" caps that require you to buy data booster(s) when you hit your limit.

We'll have to wait for biena to hit his cap this month and report back to us ...

lol, will do that when I know what my billing dates is (so in a months time). Or we could ask someone who has a 20Mbps dsl line. As far as I know the softcap portion is going to be the same.

 

[Luffy]

lol, will do that when I know what my billing dates is (so in a months time). Or we could ask someone who has a 20Mbps dsl line. As far as I know the softcap portion is going to be the same.

Telkom sales rep told me that softcap with dsl line and fiber is differ, dsl line will slow down to kbps but fiber would be 2 Mbps. but i do not know whether this is true or not.

Telkom is running a promotion now, 50Gb soft cap is my concern. i normally use up to 100Gb per month. should i go for fiber or wait till new promtion?

 

[tanka]

Mmmm ... agree.
That said, it's only going to be an issue if it's going to be an issue !

You've had your WebAfrica-over-Telkom fibre connection for some 2 weeks now. Granted it's still very early days, but what's been your experience so far ? Have you had any outages ? Do you see any sign of your line performance dipping down from its nominal value at certain times of the day, night or week ?

I have been extremely happy.

Constant speeds and latency all times of the day. Haven't had any down time either. Fibre even works if you have battery backup for your CPE and router.

Still can't stream Twitch at source on Afrihost but this is down to Afrihost as even on 20mb ADSL (my previous connection) I couldn't and that should be more than fast enough. However I can stream Twitch perfectly on WA.

Another speed test for good measure: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4352404122

 

[biena]

Telkom sales rep told me that softcap with dsl line and fiber is differ, dsl line will slow down to kbps but fiber would be 2 Mbps. but i do not know whether this is true or not.

Telkom is running a promotion now, 50Gb soft cap is my concern. i normally use up to 100Gb per month. should i go for fiber or wait till new promtion?

get the business package, same cost just more data
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/125434-telkom-smartoffice-data-deals-launched.html

SmartOffice Business Fibre Elite R999 x 24 months 20Mbps 100GB

if this was available when I ordered then i would have taken it.

 

[MickeyD]

In case anybody wants a brief explanation of a rollout strategy: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...nston-Park?p=15184662&viewfull=1#post15184662

 

[Fintan]

So the MTN FTTH coverage map shows that additional areas in Faerie Glen are now being considered. This time, I am in the zone. For those of you that are interested, check the link below.

https://www.mtn.co.za/everyday_services/internet/connectingmyhome/Fibretothehome/Pages/MTN-supersonic.aspx

 

[jcheek]

So the MTN FTTH coverage map shows that additional areas in Faerie Glen are now being considered. This time, I am in the zone. For those of you that are interested, check the link below.

Not completely on-topic, but still very interesting - thanks Fintan !
I wonder how long it will take MTN to go from "considering" to "rolling out" ?
Will also be interesting to watch their roll-out (if/when they decide to go for it) and and see how their installation techniques compare to Telkom's.

 

[Fintan]

Not completely on-topic, but still very interesting - thanks Fintan !
I wonder how long it will take MTN to go from "considering" to "rolling out" ?
Will also be interesting to watch their roll-out (if/when they decide to go for it) and and see how their installation techniques compare to Telkom's.

Sorry, for some reason I thought the thread title was FTTH in Pretoria.

Anyway, I have initiated comms with the HOA of our estate to try and get them on board and then hopefully arrange a site survey in the next couple of weeks.