FTTH Port Elizabeth

[joshsparkie]

In this mornings winds a tree fell on my line leaving me without internet until a technician can come fix it, since Telkom are already installing FTTH in my area it would be nice to apply to get the replacement as fibre instead, if my part of the suburb is close to supporting FTTH

 

[joshsparkie]

Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem on the main line to my house. The guys spent another couple of hours at the house this afternoon and weren't able to come right - looks like the contractors made a mistake somewhere and the line numbers don't line up.

They are hoping to have the issue fixed and the Fibre up and running by the end of business on Friday.

Still having problems?

 

[MeTsU]

It's been a crazy week/weekend. Long story short:

Friday morning I got a call to say that all it set and sorted. I got home on Friday night from work, did a speedtest, smiled and took my wife out for dinner as they kids weren't with us.

Saturday morning I worked from 08:30 to 16:00. I played around a little on Saturday afternoon.

I must say, 100Mb Fibre is rad! Really enjoying it! I'm getting 97Mb down and 24Mb up.

Results:
Download Speed: 97143 kbps (12142.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 24204 kbps (3025.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 12 ms
Jitter: 1 ms
2/21/2016, 2:19:51 PM

 

[Bryn]

@MeTsU Have you tried out the ISPAfrika account included with your line? I just did, and holy s**t does it fly. I've never seen such snappy performance on the internet. You can barely blink and Youtube videos have finished buffering. Such a shame the prices are insanely high.

I did notice from a trace route that Mweb servers are being used. I wonder if this is how all Mweb capped accounts run on fibre.

 

[joshsparkie]

@MeTsU Have you tried out the ISPAfrika account included with your line? I just did, and holy s**t does it fly. I've never seen such snappy performance on the internet. You can barely blink and Youtube videos have finished buffering. Such a shame the prices are insanely high.

I did notice from a trace route that Mweb servers are being used. I wonder if this is how all Mweb capped accounts run on fibre.

Are your webpages taking longer to load and your youtube videos buffering noticeably more on the Afrihost account?

 

[Bryn]

Are your webpages taking longer to load and your youtube videos buffering noticeably more on the Afrihost account?

The performance on Afrihost isn't as good as on the ISPAfrika account, but that's not to say that Afrihost doesn't perform very well. The difference is very marginal. Youtube still buffers incredibly fast and browsing is still great. It's a small difference that I'm happy to live with considering the price discrepancy. Clearly the ISPAfrika capped accounts are expensive due to lower contention.

I asked Garth about their data, and he said they resell RSAWeb and Axxess accounts. The high prices of the fibre data and it's correlation to RSAWeb's pricing makes me strongly suspect that I have an RSAWeb account.

The RSAWeb prices are bonkers. R599pm for 150GB data. They make Mweb's crappy capped prices look good.

 

[sirbluepants]

Hi all

So after canceling my original order, and placing a new one, everything went smoothly. Within 2 weeks of my new order, the installers arrived early this morning, like 8:30 I was super impressed. Pulled fibre through the underground conduits, did the splicing, and the "junction" box is against the wall. There had to be a mandatory issue with the install,, Telkom in PE don't have ONT devices. Courier were supposed to deliver this morning but my install was so early it didn't arrive. So I'm hoping to get my ONT before 2pm. Otherwise probably tomorrow. I know a lot of photos have been posted but for those interested, here's some pics of an install if your complex/estate catered for fibre when they built the place:











I was lucky that he was able to use the conduit built for the TV ariel/DSTV to pull the cable through and spare me a corner of the wall split by a black cable.





So at the moment the yellow fibre patch cable is just lying there waiting for the ONT. Unfortunately a 100mbps is out of my budget atm, so I won't be able to wow people with speed tests. There isn't any dsl here so I'm just happy to get connected. I might upgrade to a 20mbps later on, but for now 10mbps pared with some good latency is all I need.

 

[sirbluepants]

I'm up and running

Using my ISPAFRIKA account till next month. @Bryn mine is also RSAWeb i could see on my speed test. Speaking of, 9.75mbps on my 10meg line and avg 14ms local ping. Couldn't check international latency yet.

 

[Macabre25]

For you guys with ISPAFRIKA, what costs were involved with the installation, was it just a R1710 once off or were there extra costs for the trenches, router, whatever?

 

[Bryn]

For you guys with ISPAFRIKA, what costs were involved with the installation, was it just a R1710 once off or were there extra costs for the trenches, router, whatever?

Yeah, just the once-off R1710 fee. Ordinarily though, Telkom can charge extra.

ISPAfrika received a bill from Telkom of R2800 for extra work needed for my installation, and of course they then contacted me for the money. I explained that the Telkom technicians were very clear that all additional costs during this early phase of fibre rollout in PE are being waived for customers 'migrating' from DSL connections. And I did disclose to them that I wasn't a Telkom ISP customer and that my order did not originate from Telkom. ISPAfrika is currently disputing the charge with Telkom.

The breakdown of the extra charge:
- R1815 (excl. VAT) for 10m of trenching (bs description, because conduits are quicker and easier than trenches)
- R181.50 (excl. VAT) for additional trenching
- R462 (excl. VAT) for device set-up (not sure why anyone would be charged extra for such a basic operation)

 

[Macabre25]

Yeah, just the once-off R1710 fee. Ordinarily though, Telkom can charge extra.

ISPAfrika received a bill from Telkom of R2800 for extra work needed for my installation, and of course they then contacted me for the money. I explained that the Telkom technicians were very clear that all additional costs during this early phase of fibre rollout in PE are being waived for customers 'migrating' from DSL connections. And I did disclose to them that I wasn't a Telkom ISP customer and that my order did not originate from Telkom. ISPAfrika is currently disputing the charge with Telkom.

The breakdown of the extra charge:
- R1815 (excl. VAT) for 10m of trenching (bs description, because conduits are quicker and easier than trenches)
- R181.50 (excl. VAT) for additional trenching
- R462 (excl. VAT) for device set-up (not sure why anyone would be charged extra for such a basic operation)

Thank you for the reply because I am looking at using them but was hoping the R1710 would be the limit for the whole install, please let me know the outcome of the dispute. Did you buy your own router and/or what router do you use?

 

[Bryn]

Thank you for the reply because I am looking at using them but was hoping the R1710 would be the limit for the whole install, please let me know the outcome of the dispute. Did you buy your own router and/or what router do you use?

It has nothing to do with ISPAfrika, so there's no point waiting. If you were really concerned about it, you could always do the extra work yourself. Just ask the technicians what needs doing.

I bought my own router, although I regret buying the particular one I did because it's user interface is bloody awful. That's the Zyxel SBG3300-N and it cost R1.8k. I'd recommend you get the TP-Link MR3420 rather - it's R519 at Takealot.

 

[Bryn]

The seller of a big amazing house in Walmer accepted my bid for it today, and we'll be moving as soon as possible.

Goodbye fibre though...

I see Walmer isn't even light purple on the Telkom FTTH coverage map. Only MTN Supersonic includes it. MTN's coverage map also includes Mill Park, which isn't finished, so I assume that Walmer is probably not finished either. Even if it was finished, I'm not keen to pay R2379pm for 500GB @ 100Mbps.

I really hope I can get 40Mbps VDSL at least, while I wait god knows how long for Telkom FTTH.

 

[joshsparkie]

The seller of a big amazing house in Walmer accepted my bid for it today, and we'll be moving as soon as possible.

Goodbye fibre though...

I see Walmer isn't even light purple on the Telkom FTTH coverage map. Only MTN Supersonic includes it. MTN's coverage map also includes Mill Park, which isn't finished, so I assume that Walmer is probably not finished either. Even if it was finished, I'm not keen to pay R2379pm for 500GB @ 100Mbps.

I really hope I can get 40Mbps VDSL at least, while I wait god knows how long for Telkom FTTH.

I'm on 40mbps but can only achieve 28mbps, the area coordinator for Walmer emailed me on Friday saying this about Telkom FTTH in Walmer

Hi Josh, final stages are being rounded up, EG: finances etc on project. As soon as project goes to construction, I will keep you posted.

Also, MTN FTTH is live in some roads of Walmer already, check their coverage map, the available parts also show as dark purple

 

[Bryn]

I'm on 40mbps but can only achieve 28mbps, the area coordinator for Walmer emailed me on Friday saying this about Telkom FTTH in Walmer

Also, MTN FTTH is live in some roads of Walmer already, check their coverage map, the available parts also show as dark purple

Thanks for the info! I'll definitely stick to whatever VDSL is available for me then while I wait for Telkom FTTH.

MTN needs much, much better pricing if they are going to convince me to join their closed FTTH network.

 

[Mike43110]

Anyone have any info on Summerstrand and Fibre? I see there are locations which are fibre enabled but those all tend to be complexes

 

[MickeyD]

Anyone have any info on Summerstrand and Fibre? I see there are locations which are fibre enabled but those all tend to be complexes

Street or position near an avenue?

 

[The_Imp_ZA]

Anyone manage to get the free fibre migration that was mentioned a while back? IIRC, Telkom said that they would contact viable candidates. So far, I've heard nothing about this from anyone.

 

[Bryn]

Anyone manage to get the free fibre migration that was mentioned a while back? IIRC, Telkom said that they would contact viable candidates. So far, I've heard nothing about this from anyone.

I haven't heard anything. ISPAfrika haven't gotten back to me about the disagreement with Telkom over the extra costs incurred with my installation.

It's crazy that Telkom didn't clearly stipulate the full cost of the installation and seek approval before carrying out the work. If they told me that they'd charge 3 grand for a few metres of PVC conduits I'd have told them to take a toffee and wait for me to have it done by someone else.

 

[The_Imp_ZA]

I haven't heard anything. ISPAfrika haven't gotten back to me about the disagreement with Telkom over the extra costs incurred with my installation.

It's crazy that Telkom didn't clearly stipulate the full cost of the installation and seek approval before carrying out the work. If they told me that they'd charge 3 grand for a few metres of PVC conduits I'd have told them to take a toffee and wait for me to have it done by someone else.

That's crazy! Almost double the initially quoted cost.

I'm glad that I'm letting others be the Guinea Pigs The system obviously needs ironing out.