Dear Customers
This is an official response from Frogfoot.
During the past week, Frogfoot experienced a multitude of issues and worked in the background with all Internet Service Providers in order to resolve them.
Frogfoot currently feels confident that the issues are resolved, and we encourage users to test again where they feel the service is not performing as expected.
Please keep the following in mind when testing:
- Do not test using the speedtest.net web page. Please download their application and use that to test. We’ve found that results produced via some web browsers are not reliable.
- Do not test over Wifi. Connect a computer or laptop directly to the router using an internet cable. Testing via wifi can not always produce reliable results, specifically with regards to high speed services.
Should you still have any issues, please post below, and Frogfoot will try to assist.
In the interest of transparency and for those who are interested in a technical explanation, herewith some details and events of what transpired.
Firstly, some details about the Frogfoot network itself. Frogfoot uses GPON for service provisioning - a standard used by all the large providers, due to the efficiency of fibre use. This ultimately drives costs down for the consumer.
There are regularly concerns regarding splitters that share bandwidth between 64 houses. This is a valid concern, which Frogfoot addresses by only employing 16 way splitters in the field complemented by 4 way splitters in the nodes. This allows Frogfoot to upgrade any port should it be necessary. Something Frogfoot is committed to do if and when required.
In addition, Frogfoot currently has a 40G backbone running towards the Parklands Area. This backbone only runs at about 30% capacity. Frogfoot is committed to upgrade this, when needed. Frogfoot is currently testing 100G-600G capable equipment for our next phase of upgrades to our backhaul network. This will ensure that Frogfoot can deliver a world class service to any user serviced by the Frogfoot network.
On Friday 23 August a problem on a 40G port for traffic arriving at the Teraco Rondebosch Data Centre was discovered. The port was showing errors when receiving traffic. This was fixed by Friday evening at 18h00. The decision was made to monitor and get feedback from the Internet Service Providers. On Friday evening Frogfoot received confirmations that problems were resolved for the group of clients which were impacted by this path.
This however did not explain problems reported in other areas, and Frogfoot kept on monitoring the network. On Sunday a congested port was discovered on the Frogfoot network in the Teraco Data Centre. This was an oversight on the Frogfoot side, which Frogfoot apologises for. This port was also mistakenly not added to the Frogfoot Monitoring systems. This congested port was upgraded at 05h00 on Monday morning.
The removal of the congestion fixed most issues, but there were still some complaints about slow speeds, especially uploads. A minor problem in our Fibre to the Home bandwidth profiles were discovered on Monday morning. This was fixed at around 17h00 on Monday.
Frogfoot have engaged directly with quite a few end users after the fixes were applied and all responses have been positive.
Frogfoot will endeavour in future to provide proactive updates of issues when they are happening on a larger scale. We are committed to be the fibre provider of choice.
Regards,
Frogfoot Networks Team
