FTTH possibility - Is this basically a good deal?

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MisterBigglesworth

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I got an email from our estate HOA, seems we will be getting FTTH and they gave the information below. I am quite keen to kick my Telkom ADSL to the curb...but before getting too excited, thought to check here first (seeing as though I dont know much about this sort of thing - besides how I am currently limited to 2.5megs on my 4meg line, who knows why!).

FTTH Details:

  • Vodacom offered the most attractive package, with high speed uncapped options
  • Cheapest package is R799 a month, gives you 20meg fibre and 50gig monthly cap (which is more than enough for me)
  • No connection fee if I join on rollout of this FTTH
  • Telkom people (like me) can port their existing number to fixed VOIP phone. I need to pay a little over R100 for this setup and VOIP device

Yay or nay? I use about 15gigs a month on my current 4meg line. The price looks similar to what I currently pay for my ADSL connection (line, line rental, data etc)...so to get that speed and extra data seems like a bonus.

Yay or nay?
 
That's pretty expensive when compared with some other fibre competitors.

I would find out if the fibre is open access (i.e. you can use any ISP for data), if it's not then I would tell them to stuff it.
 
CrazyFig said:
I got an email from our estate HOA, seems we will be getting FTTH and they gave the information below. I am quite keen to kick my Telkom ADSL to the curb...but before getting too excited, thought to check here first (seeing as though I dont know much about this sort of thing - besides how I am currently limited to 2.5megs on my 4meg line, who knows why!).

FTTH Details:

  • Vodacom offered the most attractive package, with high speed uncapped options
  • Cheapest package is R799 a month, gives you 20meg fibre and 50gig monthly cap (which is more than enough for me)
  • No connection fee if I join on rollout of this FTTH
  • Telkom people (like me) can port their existing number to fixed VOIP phone. I need to pay a little over R100 for this setup and VOIP device

Yay or nay? I use about 15gigs a month on my current 4meg line. The price looks similar to what I currently pay for my ADSL connection (line, line rental, data etc)...so to get that speed and extra data seems like a bonus.

Yay or nay?
Click to expand...


NAY. Total ripoff.
 
That 50GB is only 3 times what I get on Cell C for a year. I pay R1799. If you compare it like that it's not fibre but a joke. Just shows how SA is being ripped off.
 
Swa said:
That 50GB is only 3 times what I get on Cell C for a year. I pay R1799. If you compare it like that it's not fibre but a joke. Just shows how SA is being ripped off.
Click to expand...

Cell C Fibre, thats new ;)
 
Thanks for replies all, looks like I need to do a lot of reading up on FTTH as it looked tempting to me, and my lack of knowledge shows. Granted, if they present this...it will look attractive to others too if they are not clued up...and then we all get ripped off.

dotVIBE - it's not just one complex, apparently this FTTH will be connected to another 3 other complexes so I assume we will all run off this fibre backbone? Dennegeur, Meerhof, Somerset Heights pretty much those 3 at the moment with more maybe on board. Will this impact speed?
 
CrazyFig said:
Thanks for replies all, looks like I need to do a lot of reading up on FTTH as it looked tempting to me, and my lack of knowledge shows. Granted, if they present this...it will look attractive to others too if they are not clued up...and then we all get ripped off.

dotVIBE - it's not just one complex, apparently this FTTH will be connected to another 3 other complexes so I assume we will all run off this fibre backbone? Dennegeur, Meerhof, Somerset Heights pretty much those 3 at the moment with more maybe on board. Will this impact speed?
Click to expand...

We just finished selecting a provider for Constantia. Here are some important points to ask:

1. Open access? This can determine monopoly or not.
2. Contention ratio - how many people will share your line.
3. Contract or month-to-month?
4. SLA (uptime) per year?
5. What trenching process will they utilise?
 
CrazyFig said:
Thanks for replies all, looks like I need to do a lot of reading up on FTTH as it looked tempting to me, and my lack of knowledge shows. Granted, if they present this...it will look attractive to others too if they are not clued up...and then we all get ripped off.

dotVIBE - it's not just one complex, apparently this FTTH will be connected to another 3 other complexes so I assume we will all run off this fibre backbone? Dennegeur, Meerhof, Somerset Heights pretty much those 3 at the moment with more maybe on board. Will this impact speed?
Click to expand...

Interesting. We are currently in planning stages for a full FTTH deployment in a new estate right next to you guys.

And yes, having 3 estates does impact speed. The more units you get on board, the better backhaul you can afford, and the ISP can structure their packages accordingly. Running more than one estate of a single head end can also cut down on installation capex, again affecting monthly costs.

We work on a very different model to Vodacom though, so this might not really apply to them so much.
 
Ah probably that new estate on the side of the ridge, forget its name. Will having so many estates/complexes connected to one point not affect speed/quality?
 
mister said:
NAY. Total ripoff.
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Total ripoff. Why not just LTE will workout cheaper for you in the long run. If I remember correctly Telkom Mobile have a promotion R299 per month for 20 gigs of data.
 
Not sure why the responses are so negative. Sure its not the best deal seen so far, but seems like a decent upgrade. Plus dodging the connection fee seems decent too.

Anyway...OP I'd be very wary of the 50 gigs. You say you're using 15 currently...but moving to a higher speed will change your usage patterns quite a bit. e.g. 1080p streaming. Unless you're literally only browsing you'll hit it pretty fast I think.

Find out what upgrade options are like. My current provider locked me into a 12 month contract (Fail)...but I can upgrade & downgrade freely all the way from 20 meg to gigabit at any time. The downgrade part is a little unusual, but with a bit of luck maybe upgrades are available in your case...that way you can go for a low one and change it later if needed.

LTE...nah...fibre makes for a much better experience.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Have a set of questions for this meeting, have lots of questions. Detailed them below, Vodacom presenting Q&A session next week to us.

Agree though...not the best deal, but its ok I guess (better than what I currently have though). I recon I will exceed the 50gigs quick with a decent fibre connection. LTE is not an option, no coverage where I live.

  • Will it be a true symmetrical connection?
  • What latency can be expected?
  • Number of people connected, contention ratio?
  • Any usage policies on the line / limitations?
  • Are we tied into Vodacom for bandwidth?
  • International speed VS local speed - expectations?
  • Month to month / contract?
  • Uptime per year
  • SLA on faults
 
Last edited:
CrazyFig said:
Thanks for all the replies. Have a set of questions for this meeting, have lots of questions. Detailed them below, Vodacom presenting Q&A session next week to us.

Agree though...not the best deal, but its ok I guess (better than what I currently have though). I recon I will exceed the 50gigs quick with a decent fibre connection. LTE is not an option, no coverage where I live.

  • Will it be a true symmetrical connection?
  • What latency can be expected?
  • Number of people connected, contention ratio?
  • Any usage policies on the line / limitations?
  • Are we tied into Vodacom for bandwidth?
  • International speed VS local speed - expectations?
  • Month to month / contract?
  • Uptime per year
  • SLA on faults
Click to expand...


I can answer some of those off the bat. I have a copy of the proposal to our estate (just up the road from you)

1 - not covered in proposal
2 - not covered in proposal
3 - not covered in proposal
4 - my understanding is that you're softcapped to a maximum of 10% of your line speed, depending on network conditions. so if you have a 100mb line and you hit your cap, your slowed down to 10mb. the following point also applies
5 - no, its open access network. so you could hit your limit on vodacom, and then switch to cape connect for bandwidth
6 - not covered
7 - for purposes of the free installation to the estate and your house, they want a 2year contract
8&9 - contract sates Network uptime:95%, Mean Time to Respond to outages:4 hours, Mean Time to Restore outages:48 hours, Maintenance hours of operation:24/7
 
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