FTTH Rondebosch

[sybawoods]

Thank you!! And thanks for the ISP feedback. Let us know how it goes with Afrihost. I did not get much time to play with the line last night - pulled an all-nighter for a work deadline - but did an intermittent speed test every hour or so and it was humming at 3am . Can't wait to give it a proper work-over this evening with Netflix, hooking up Smart TVs, Explora etc. I agree, it's a massive improvement over ADSL!!

Personally found speeds to be all over the place on 3 of the ISP’s I have used.Anything from 10 Mbps to 95 Mbps.Thats using Vox,Webafrica and ISPAfrika.Busy testing Afrihost on a capped unshaped account which is looking very promising.
Nevertheless it’s all a massive improvement on my ADSL.Enjoy your spanking new line!

 

[Brawler]

@sybawoods which Road are you in if I may ask? Im in Rouwkoop road and they have been busy digging up the area over the last few months and not sure if they are ready to roll.

 

[sybawoods]

@sybawoods which Road are you in if I may ask? Im in Rouwkoop road and they have been busy digging up the area over the last few months and not sure if they are ready to roll.

Belvedere - digging started in April already and I had the cables in my yard from about June / July. The map finally got updated about 2 weeks ago enabling me to order.

 

[Dipro]

Personally found speeds to be all over the place on 3 of the ISP’s I have used.Anything from 10 Mbps to 95 Mbps.Thats using Vox,Webafrica and ISPAfrika.Busy testing Afrihost on a capped unshaped account which is looking very promising.

Out of curiousity.... which one was the best ? most stable of the 3 ? but I am more interested in your experience with Vox's service...

 

[ajules]

Out of curiousity.... which one was the best ? most stable of the 3 ? but I am more interested in your experience with Vox's service...

I struggled with all of them in terms of consistency so loathe to recommend any.Afrihost so far is great.They have a bundled line/data option of 100MB line and 200GB of data + free after hours data for R997.Great value.

On a separate topic I have managed to migrate to VOIP which I am truly enjoying.Using Webafrica’s VOIP service.Great call quality and cost savings.Nice to finally be free of Telkom.

 

[Dipro]

I struggled with all of them in terms of consistency so loathe to recommend any.Afrihost so far is great.They have a bundled line/data option of 100MB line and 200GB of data + free after hours data for R997.Great value.

On a separate topic I have managed to migrate to VOIP which I am truly enjoying.Using Webafrica’s VOIP service.Great call quality and cost savings.Nice to finally be free of Telkom.

Thank you

I average 350GB a month just with legal streaming (owing to my TV and Amazon Fire TV streaming in 4K), so I was thinking to go uncapped.

I am also definitely going to have 1GB/1GB (just for one month)... to see what my friends in Kansas City (USA) have the daily pleasure of on their Google Fiber...

 

[sybawoods]

I was nearly embarrassed to do this, but I've logged an official fault for investigation because I can *only* get 88mbps max (down) on my 100meg line. The line is stable, pings are low, uploads max at 49mbps... but it bothers me that I'm not getting closer to the full 100 megs.

 

[ajules]

Must say that FTTH is making a massive difference to my life.Busy backing up stuff to Onedrive and Dropbox and speeds are fantastic.Hopefully Openserve will increase upload speeds to 100 MB/s soon

Also on Webafrica Voice and I can already see cost savings and voice clarity is massively better.

 

[sybawoods]

Must say that FTTH is making a massive difference to my life.Busy backing up stuff to Onedrive and Dropbox and speeds are fantastic.Hopefully Openserve will increase upload speeds to 100 MB/s soon

Also on Webafrica Voice and I can already see cost savings and voice clarity is massively better.

Good to hear! It's been quite the revolution for us too. We have a similar story with OneDrive and DropBox. We have backed up massive amounts of important data to the cloud, which would simply have been a prohibitively inconvenient and time-consuming process, with ADSL. I've also synced our entire digital music library (about 150 gigs) with both Google Play Music and Apple Music. I'll eventually stick with only one of the two services, but I'm taking advantage of their trial periods in the meantime. We've also taken full advantage of google photos, and backed up all our mobile digital photo libraries to the cloud.

We have 2 Exploras which have both been wired up for ShowMax and Catch up plus etc. Streaming is instantaneous and in full HD. Netflix is available in more than one room on more than one device, and works flawlessly even with multiple users simultaneously. The Smart TV has finally become "smart", with YouTube and other streaming apps working in full HD at anytime.

All that, and I'm still complaining, because only 88mbps. First world problems. At last !

 

[Seeyou]

@sybawoods - which ISP did you go with?

 

[sybawoods]

@sybawoods - which ISP did you go with?

I went with Mweb. So far, so good. They had my ADSL account, so it was more a matter of convenience (usernames, billing details etc, didn't change and they were first out the blocks with an installation date). Initially went with uncapped 100/50 for something like R1299 (can't remember exact amount), but it was heavily shaped. I switched to a capped 100/50 with 1000 gigs of data for R50 more, which is unshaped and works well for us.

Octotel is busy trenching in our area. As soon as they're up and running, I plan to switch, so OpenServe is a short(ish)-term gig for me.

 

[sybawoods]

I was nearly embarrassed to do this, but I've logged an official fault for investigation because I can *only* get 88mbps max (down) on my 100meg line. The line is stable, pings are low, uploads max at 49mbps... but it bothers me that I'm not getting closer to the full 100 megs.

I've received confirmation from MWEB that OpenServe / TELKOM have conceded that the fluctuating speed on my line is due to "congestion". I didn't even know that this could be an issue on Fibre, but hopefully the acknowledgement means that it will be addressed soon.

 

[ajules]

Been very quiet in here so assume everyone is enjoying their Fibre
I see Octotel are on a massive expansion drive per the coverage map.

 

[sybawoods]

Been very quiet in here so assume everyone is enjoying their Fibre
I see Octotel are on a massive expansion drive per the coverage map.

Lol! (* nervous giggle *)

I've gone from being under provisioned to being over provisioned. I have no idea how this will work yet, but I'm tumbling down the rabbit hole. Octotel did a pre-installation today. What you see in the pic below is the Octotel installation (the 2 top boxes), below that is the Openserve installation, which runs to a Nokia ONT (out of picture).

I'm live with Openserve, but still have an open fault related to congestion. The plan is to migrate to OctoTel.

The OctoTel fibre is not live in our street yet, but the trenching has started. Am told it will take 4 to 8 weeks, but they're hooking up pre-order customers with this "pre-installation". Unlike OpenServe, where the fibre is coming in via overhead cable to a tel pole in our yard, OctoTel appears to have run the fibre to a point against my boundary wall at the front entrance. I got home in the dark this evening, so can't see exactly what they've done outside, but I can tell that there's ducting heading towards the road in front of our house - will try and take some more pics later in the week.

For now, Openserve is doing it's job, but inconsistently (100/50 capped package with MWeb). Speed is as slow as 20mbps down in peak hours, and about 90mbps during non-peak periods. Uploads are consistently fast - 45-49mbps. I haven't decided on an OctoTel package yet, but liking the look of a 200/200 deal with Cool Ideas when everything is eventually live. I'm still hoping there's a painless way out of the OpenServe deal - no long term contracts were signed, so hopefully it's painless. Will fall off that bridge later... *nervous giggle*

 

[ajules]

Thanks for the update.Happy days!

 

[sybawoods]

It is as I thought. The OctoTel pre-install to the house is via ducting which is above the ground and which runs to the outside boundary wall. Looks very basic, even insecure, to me. But I'm no expert.

The white ducting in the pics below is the OctoTel fibre.



Side boundary of the house leading towards the road. The ducting (white) follows our irrigation pipes for part of the way. Surely not a good idea? Not a drop of water to irrigate with in Cape Town, but if this was to ever become active again, and spring a leak...? I guess that's super-secure NASA style ducting.




Ducting leads towards the boundary wall, facing the road.




Outside boundary wall, overlooking the road. I guess this is where the fiber will eventually get spliced. All the neighbours, both sides of the road, have these little boxes on their front boundary walls.

 

[Budza]

Crazy, that Octotel & Openserve can both install physical lines to the same road and still make a profit yet they both neglect other areas.

Given the price difference between them, I wonder how many people will stay with Openserve?

 

[MDE]

Crazy, that Octotel & Openserve can both install physical lines to the same road and still make a profit yet they both neglect other areas.

Given the price difference between them, I wonder how many people will stay with Openserve?

I know once they (Octotel) finish installing that I will certainly be leaving Openserve. Currently on a 10mb line and for the same price on Octotel can get a 20mb line.

Got Openserve installed via Telkom when they were doing the installs for free...so its nice having both in the house so I can change if needed.

 

[sybawoods]

Crazy, that Octotel & Openserve can both install physical lines to the same road and still make a profit yet they both neglect other areas.

Given the price difference between them, I wonder how many people will stay with Openserve?

Have to agree with that. In this instance, as a consumer, I'm not complaining. However, my brother lives 5 mins from me and neither OpenServe or Octotel has his street on their planning horizon. Less than 5km away, both providers are competing for the same customers and duplicating infrastructure.

 

[Kappie 17]

Hi guys. Trust those who have finally got their fibre lines made live, are enjoying it!

I cannot seem to get above 55Mbps download over WiFi on my OpenServe 100/50Mbps line. It’s a capped account and I’ve recently bought a “top of the range” router from my ISP. I know that WiFi speeds won’t usually reach the maximum amounts (“up to”), but I am a bit pissed that the download speed is nowhere close to that. Anyone know what this could be? The router is 1900AC dual-band and my contention ratio is “10:1”. My router is upstairs and explora’s downstairs and when I connected them, the highest speed I have seen them connect at, is no more than 15Mbps. Also, for gaming, my PS4 upstairs (5m from the router) connects at a download speed of about 25Mbps. I’m so happy I’ve got fibre now, but I’m paying for 100Mbps download and want to be getting speeds closer to 100Mbps than to my old 10Mbps ADSL line. Please could someone help me out here!