FTTH Port Elizabeth

[Bryn]

I noticed they left loads of driveways in a state with bricks lying on the side of the driveway and a terrible patch up job.

Yeah, it's bad. Many of the houses in my suburb have been seriously vandalised by this MTN installation. Beautiful front gardens destroyed, intricate stone walkways throne all over, driveways rendered unusable etc. The guys don't give a damn - they'd sooner destroy things than move them to one side. And of course they don't ring your doorbell and apologise for the damage ahead of time like the Telkom guys did. You just go outside one day to discover the front of your entire property looks like total s**t. And it takes ages before they even begin their shoddy repair job because the trench diggers are far ahead of the cable layers, and the cable layers are far ahead of the repair guys.

You must remember that MTN don't do the work themselves - everything is outsourced to suppliers / contractors. However there should be a MTN project manager or Liaison Officer...

The contractor is meant to have signs up indicating their own name as well as who they are contracting for on that job. There should also be contact numbers on those signs, which are sometimes stuck on their trucks.

Get that number and ask for the contact details of the MTN regional manager. Then go ballistic!

Oh I know for a fact that some very angry locals will do that for me lol.

 

[eddief1]

I see. At least there's some sensibility in it I suppose.

Something I've been wondering - how did MTN get permission to tear up Mill Park? The Telkom fibre stuff was always communicated with the residents, plenty of us expressed a desire for Telkom FTTH, the installation crew are polite, quiet and quick and the existing Telkom infrastructure needs replacing anyway.

But none of us wanted MTN, none of us knew about MTN coming in, our suburb has no ties to MTN, the MTN installation crew is extremely loud and leaves total devastation in their wake and the service they're trying to supply is redundant and overpriced. None of the residents here that I've spoken to aren't furious about MTN imposing themselves - especially one poor chap around the corner and down the road who hasn't had a proper driveway for nearly a month.

All this crap, and for absolutely nothing.

1) They can't lay on your property without consent, so they must be digging on municipal property, so residents driveways, gardens, etc they digging up are not actually on their property but municipal, so I guess the homeowner can say nothing.

2) Recent court cases pave the way for any licensed operator to lay on municipal property with believe it or not no permission required from even that municipality. The EC act covers this all also.

 

[Bryn]

1) They can't lay on your property without consent, so they must be digging on municipal property, so residents driveways, gardens, etc they digging up are not actually on their property but municipal, so I guess the homeowner can say nothing.

2) Recent court cases pave the way for any licensed operator to lay on municipal property with believe it or not no permission required from even that municipality. The EC act covers this all also.

They are only digging up municipal property, but it still causes enormous damage and inconvenience. The residents complaining aren't claiming it's illegal though - only that it's unprofessional and unwanted.

Thanks for clarifying the legal aspect of MTN swooping in to make everyone miserable.

 

[joshsparkie]

Just wanted to know if any of you have managed to get FTTH installed since Telkom updated their FTTH coverage map to show quite a few dark purple areas?

 

[Johnatan56]

1) They can't lay on your property without consent, so they must be digging on municipal property, so residents driveways, gardens, etc they digging up are not actually on their property but municipal, so I guess the homeowner can say nothing.

2) Recent court cases pave the way for any licensed operator to lay on municipal property with believe it or not no permission required from even that municipality. The EC act covers this all also.

But would they not be liable for any damaged caused, they have to repair/restore the municipal land back to the state it was before their intrusion.

 

[MickeyD]

But would they not be liable for any damaged caused, they have to repair/restore the municipal land back to the state it was before their intrusion.

In theory, yes.

 

[MickeyD]

Just wanted to know if any of you have managed to get FTTH installed since Telkom updated their FTTH coverage map to show quite a few dark purple areas?

Since the FTTH networks went live in PE last Friday, 3 services were installed in Thriftwoods and Bryn had his installation completed in Mill Park but there's an issue with the way his account was transferred between ISPs. MeTsU's installation should start within 10 days as his part of Mill Park goes "purple" any day now.

 

[joshsparkie]

Since the FTTH networks went live in PE last Friday, 3 services were installed in Thriftwoods and Bryn had his installation completed in Mill Park but there's an issue with the way his account was transferred between ISPs. MeTsU's installation should start within 10 days as his part of Mill Park goes "purple" any day now.

Sweet, exciting times!

Wondering what pings we will see to Cape Town and Joburg on FTTH, lowest I've gotten on my xDSL is around 25ms to Cape Town SAIX server.

Also wondering why Telkom notify Walmer residents of FTTH coming to Walmer soonish but yet Walmer is not even light purple on their coverage map?

 

[Bryn]

Since the FTTH networks went live in PE last Friday, 3 services were installed in Thriftwoods and Bryn had his installation completed in Mill Park but there's an issue with the way his account was transferred between ISPs. MeTsU's installation should start within 10 days as his part of Mill Park goes "purple" any day now.

Turns out my DSL line wasn't in the holding pool, and the line is simply dead and in need of repairs.

Sweet, exciting times!

Wondering what pings we will see to Cape Town and Joburg on FTTH, lowest I've gotten on my xDSL is around 25ms to Cape Town SAIX server.

Also wondering why Telkom notify Walmer residents of FTTH coming to Walmer soonish but yet Walmer is not even light purple on their coverage map?

My property was only briefly light purple before turning dark purple. Mill Park wasn't light purple even after Telkom was finished with most of the physical FTTH installation.

 

[joshsparkie]

Turns out my DSL line wasn't in the holding pool, and the line is simply dead and in need of repairs.



My property was only briefly light purple before turning dark purple. Mill Park wasn't light purple even after Telkom was finished with most of the physical FTTH installation.

Have you been able to test your FTTH since installation or has it still been giving problems?

 

[Bryn]

Have you been able to test your FTTH since installation or has it still been giving problems?

I don't have a FTTH installation to test. I was talking about the suburb's infrastructure installation and testing thereof. My application for a home installation has been processed, and someone has been over to plan the installation, but nothing has happened beyond that.

It's my existing Telkom line that's dead - no voice and no DSL. Once fixed it will have no bearing on my FTTH situation.

 

[joshsparkie]

I don't have a FTTH installation to test. I was talking about the suburb's infrastructure installation and testing thereof. My application for a home installation has been processed, and someone has been over to plan the installation, but nothing has happened beyond that.

It's my existing Telkom line that's dead - no voice and no DSL. Once fixed it will have no bearing on my FTTH situation.

Appologies I was under the impression your installation was complete from this post:

Since the FTTH networks went live in PE last Friday, 3 services were installed in Thriftwoods and Bryn had his installation completed in Mill Park but there's an issue with the way his account was transferred between ISPs. MeTsU's installation should start within 10 days as his part of Mill Park goes "purple" any day now.

 

[Bryn]

Appologies I was under the impression your installation was complete from this post:

There's often some ambiguity between a home installation and an area installation. No worries.

I'm going to be 1.5 hours out of town for the next week. I really hope Telkom and/or the FTTH installer phones me before coming over, as I asked them to. I'll be more than happy to drive in for them.

It will be funny if the FTTH installation happens early next week, and I have a working 100Mbit connection while my Telkom line is down.

 

[MeTsU]

It sucks that you're still having issues with your line Bryn. Would be rad to come home and a 100Mbit line is in place.

 

[Bryn]

It sucks that you're still having issues with your line Bryn. Would be rad to come home and a 100Mbit line is in place.

My DSL line was repaired just now. Still no sign of the FTTH people.

 

[MeTsU]

My DSL line was repaired just now. Still no sign of the FTTH people.

Well that's good news!

This time of year is probably pretty tough with staff count etc, will probably pick up in the New Year again.

 

[MickeyD]

Well that's good news!

This time of year is probably pretty tough with staff count etc, will probably pick up in the New Year again.

All leave for technical customer facing staff was cancelled. In PE only 4 techies were allowed to go on leave due to prior payments, etc.

 

[MeTsU]

All leave for technical customer facing staff was cancelled. In PE only 4 techies were allowed to go on leave due to prior payments, etc.

Wow, that's pretty tough. I know the feeling as I've had to work through again, but I look forward to taking my leave when it's not as busy and probably cheaper too!

 

[sirbluepants]

I've been living in the Thrifwood complex since start of 2015. I was there when they were laying the conduits etc. getting all jiggly in my tummy from excitement. Unfortunately, telkom outpriced my wallet and the 24month contract was a major issue due to a possible move end of this year. So get this, I was in contact with Amobia during last week to arrange a LOC survey after using afrihost mobile during the year (basically useless with 10gb cap)... Yes, I know, amobia... .. would be paying 700pm for a 3mb "unshaped+uncapped" yeah right..but desperate times.

So... Randomly saw an add for mweb ftth and something about "monthly, and low and behold... no more contracts... YAY!!

Anyway, I wasn't aware that anyone in my complex have installed fibre yet, figures coz i don't really lurk on my neighbors. But I've been frantically looking at telkom ftth providers and prices.. i'm looking at a budget of about 700pm... So WA looks most likely with 8mbps and 100gb+1tb night data? but worried after reading some complaints about their IPC congestion etc. I've emailed iconnect telecoms, so still waiting,, vox and mweb give way too little data,, telkom's website doesn't show month to month deals yet, so that's a no go atm...

Any advice from you guys would do me a solid... want to get this done asap!! after months without proper connectivity i'm nearing insanity. What ISP? what should i be aware of with installation etc...? how long does the process take? etc... let the knowledge flow

thanks

 

[Bryn]

I've been living in the Thrifwood complex since start of 2015. I was there when they were laying the conduits etc. getting all jiggly in my tummy from excitement. Unfortunately, telkom outpriced my wallet and the 24month contract was a major issue due to a possible move end of this year. So get this, I was in contact with Amobia during last week to arrange a LOC survey after using afrihost mobile during the year (basically useless with 10gb cap)... Yes, I know, amobia... .. would be paying 700pm for a 3mb "unshaped+uncapped" yeah right..but desperate times.

So... Randomly saw an add for mweb ftth and something about "monthly, and low and behold... no more contracts... YAY!!

Anyway, I wasn't aware that anyone in my complex have installed fibre yet, figures coz i don't really lurk on my neighbors. But I've been frantically looking at telkom ftth providers and prices.. i'm looking at a budget of about 700pm... So WA looks most likely with 8mbps and 100gb+1tb night data? but worried after reading some complaints about their IPC congestion etc. I've emailed iconnect telecoms, so still waiting,, vox and mweb give way too little data,, telkom's website doesn't show month to month deals yet, so that's a no go atm...

Any advice from you guys would do me a solid... want to get this done asap!! after months without proper connectivity i'm nearing insanity. What ISP? what should i be aware of with installation etc...? how long does the process take? etc... let the knowledge flow

thanks

I would avoid Web Africa and Mweb if at all possible. They have really bad customer service and cancellation policies.

I'm currently waiting for a Telkom FTTH home installation. I got the line from ISPAfrika on a month-to-month contract and the data from Afrihost, as each is the cheapest around. The R99pm Afrihost Plus addon is amazing value.

You'd make your life much easier if you upped your budget a bit to R1k pm. Fibre is simply expensive at the moment.

If you could manage R1.2k pm then you could get the same as me. 400GB data @ 100Mbps. That's R729+R399+R99.