FTTH early adopters - experience?

S

saidin

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I'm interested in experience reports from "early adopters" of FTTH.

- Which ISP did you chose and why? Pricing? Contract? Data? Deals? Voice?
- How long did it take to get installed?
- If you had a package deal, what did it come with? Modem? Phone?
- Which area are you in?
- Quality of service? Are you getting advertised speeds? Are you getting shaped? Latency? Packet loss?
 
Think i am fortunate in that i have the cheapest FTTH available.

Network was installed by Fiberhoods (Craighall Park), speed runs at 100Mbits as they decided not limit it. Cost is R350 per month for the line rental and you can choose your own provider for data. However, as part of the offering they are offering the line with the 100gig of data for R570 p/m. ISP is reflex-sa. (so R220 for the 100gig)

installation was free, including modem (part of the neighborhood offering) and contract is month to month.

So far, the speeds are phenomenal. pretty much what i hoped for. Nothing seems to be shaped, speeds are what was advertised, latency not a problem.

Still early days, but at R570, i cant complain.
 
roddyp said:
Think i am fortunate in that i have the cheapest FTTH available.

Network was installed by Fiberhoods (Craighall Park), speed runs at 100Mbits as they decided not limit it. Cost is R350 per month for the line rental and you can choose your own provider for data. However, as part of the offering they are offering the line with the 100gig of data for R570 p/m. ISP is reflex-sa. (so R220 for the 100gig)

installation was free, including modem (part of the neighborhood offering) and contract is month to month.

So far, the speeds are phenomenal. pretty much what i hoped for. Nothing seems to be shaped, speeds are what was advertised, latency not a problem.

Still early days, but at R570, i cant complain.
Click to expand...

Damn. Sounds awesome. Fibrehoods has amazing prices. R920pm for 500GB of 100Mbps is insane, as is R1.4k for uncapped.

Can you post a speed test for interest's sake?
 
@roddyp, what was the installation process? did they run fibre to your residence. My house is on a main road and literally outside my house is a DFA manhole with fibre running through it.

I've been unable to find out if there's more that needs to be done before installs can commence. Every provider claiming to cover my area has said that you need a minimum commitment in the area bla bla bla. Is there some sort of hardware that they deploy on your street like those little Telkom poles that have all the phone wires in it, or is it literally a cable run from the backbone?
 
Last edited:
roddyp said:
Think i am fortunate in that i have the cheapest FTTH available.

Network was installed by Fiberhoods (Craighall Park), speed runs at 100Mbits as they decided not limit it. Cost is R350 per month for the line rental and you can choose your own provider for data. However, as part of the offering they are offering the line with the 100gig of data for R570 p/m. ISP is reflex-sa. (so R220 for the 100gig)

installation was free, including modem (part of the neighborhood offering) and contract is month to month.

So far, the speeds are phenomenal. pretty much what i hoped for. Nothing seems to be shaped, speeds are what was advertised, latency not a problem.

Still early days, but at R570, i cant complain.
Click to expand...

Hell, I'd pay that in a heartbeat. Just wish there was an offering in Malanshof, Randburg.
 
MickeyD said:
Townhouse complex net to Baywest.

Parts of Mill Park and Linkside and also Hallack Road to start soon.
Click to expand...

/breathes heavily

How do you know this? Is there a way to check which parts? And can we check who is doing the installation?
 
Bryn said:
/breathes heavily

How do you know this? Is there a way to check which parts? And can we check who is doing the installation?
Click to expand...
Telkom. They will be sharing the information with your ward councillor...

PS. Start a new thread so we don't derail this one. And then we delete or off topic posts here. :D
 
stephannel77 said:
This might be Noob question but with Fiber do you need separate ISP account or will existing accounts work?
Click to expand...
Depends on who the fibre infrastructure provider is. If Telkom, then existing ISP accounts will work. If not, then only ISPs who have signed agreements with the infrastructure provider will work. And some infrastructure providers are opting for some really silly provisioning systems, such as Vumatel who insist on a permanent /24 IP range no matter whether they're in use or not. This is a serious waste of what is already a limited IP range...
 
Shard said:
@roddyp, what was the installation process? did they run fibre to your residence. My house is on a main road and literally outside my house is a DFA manhole with fibre running through it.

I've been unable to find out if there's more that needs to be done before installs can commence. Every provider claiming to cover my area has said that you need a minimum commitment in the area bla bla bla. Is there some sort of hardware that they deploy on your street like those little Telkom poles that have all the phone wires in it, or is it literally a cable run from the backbone?
Click to expand...


Our fibre is above ground. Basically run from street pole to street pole. No man holes or access points. Literally runs like our phones used to (oh the irony!) i.e. i have cable running from the pole outside, straight into an ONT device then into the router.
They supplied it all at no cost.

The infrastructure was commissioned by a combination of our residents association and the security company CSS. The idea was to run cameras throughout the neighborhood and the best way to do this was via fibre. As an offshoot and to recoup costs, they are selling it as a service to those who want it. They are confident that at R350 per month for those residents that have signed up, they can cover their costs. Shows you just how much profit there is to be had!

International pings and speed using speed-test are not great at this stage. This is to be expected as my house is currently one of the test houses and the bandwidth is free. pings of around 180ms (to the UK). After April, i can move to any service provider as its open access.

I've not tried gaming yet, just too busy. I did however re-install elder scrolls online and it ran at about 40MB/s-70MB/s. The moment i can start playing i will let you know.
 
Sorry, here is the international speed test.

sheffield.PNG
 
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