How does a community get fibre

M

Midas_SA

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Pietermaritzburg, KZN, SA
Hi everyone. The suburb where I stay only has dsl as the infrastructure has not been upgraded and newer internet services have not been provided. Attempts have been made to engage with Telkom to extend fibre into the area from the nearby Midlands Liberty Mall as it is not more that 900 meters away, but without success. Even going the route of escalating to ICASA did not help. There are over a 1000 households in the area. Many residents are now without decent internet services and many are also not happy with the replacement wireless phones. Those there is limited MTN LTE in the area, it does not coverage all residents and the Telkom and Vodacom signal coverage is currently very poor. The community require decent telephony and internet services.

1. It is possible for a community to obtain fibre if Telkom is not interested in proving this service and if so, what are the processes that we can follow to doing so.
2. If all else fails, is there a way for the community to obtain their own network infrastructure, VOIP and internet services and if so, what are the processes to be followed.

Feel free to also pm me.

Apologies if this query is in the wrong thread.
 
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Simple, get people to show interest on the Vumatel website. Without numbers you will struggle to get any FNO to look at your area.
 
Genisys said:
Simple, get people to show interest on the Vumatel website. Without numbers you will struggle to get any FNO to look at your area.
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Thanks I will mention this at the community meeting next week.

If there are any fibre installers in the Pietermaritzburg area interested in assisting, they are welcome to send me a pm.
 
That isn't how it works... You need to make an effort from your side (your community) to get their attention, and even then it might still take years before you see fibre
 
Vorastra said:
Ask @ghostRgg
I chalk it down to these dudes making plans and petitioning FNOs, for Umbilo and Glenwood having fibre.
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Thanks!

Basically we spent around 8 months in the Glenwood area doing site surveys, finding and planning coverage maps, areas of interest, DFA backhauls, probably 100+ other things to bring fibre to the Glenwood and Umbilo area.

We have had to take on a lot of **** if you mind my language, like FNO's taking our plans, running them and building up their own ISP to take most of the clients. So majority of our work was for naught, but we have major stand our service and the two owners, myself and my fiance we are still pushing to get people connected. Even if fibre comes there is a ton of red tape for people and there is a lot of people still hanging waiting to get connected without actual on the ground support from their ISP.

You can actually read most of the story here: https://ghostfibre.com/news/the-journey-of-bringing-fibre-to-glenwood/

It has most of the details sparing some of the nasty stuff.

Otherwise give us a Private Message on @Ghostfibre and we will see how we can help.
 
ghostRgg said:
Thanks!

Basically we spent around 8 months in the Glenwood area doing site surveys, finding and planning coverage maps, areas of interest, DFA backhauls, probably 100+ other things to bring fibre to the Glenwood and Umbilo area.

We have had to take on a lot of **** if you mind my language, like FNO's taking our plans, running them and building up their own ISP to take most of the clients. So majority of our work was for naught, but we have major stand our service and the two owners, myself and my fiance we are still pushing to get people connected. Even if fibre comes there is a ton of red tape for people and there is a lot of people still hanging waiting to get connected without actual on the ground support from their ISP.

You can actually read most of the story here: https://ghostfibre.com/news/the-journey-of-bringing-fibre-to-glenwood/

It has most of the details sparing some of the nasty stuff.

Otherwise give us a Private Message on @Ghostfibre and we will see how we can help.
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It also depends on councillor's etc especially in smaller wards/metros.

Heard from a reliable source that the ANC Councilor for our ward was blocking wayleaves for fibre.

Luckily due to the IFP and ANC forming a coalition government in eThekwini, the ANC handed over our ward to the IFP councillor (an Indian Lady) and within a couple of weeks wayleaves were approved and Vuma is currently trenching my area.
 
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Polymathic said:
Heard from a reliable source that the ANC Councilor for our ward was blocking wayleaves for fibre.
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This is a case correct, however, we have spoken to a few and within time and reason they are happy to appoint the wayleaves, there is also the "fibre mafia" who go around breaking things if they aren't the ones handed the contract. Workers going on strike, etc all the fun things as usual.
 
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ghostRgg said:
This is a case correct, however, we have spoken to a few and within time and reason they are happy to appoint the wayleaves, there is also the "fibre mafia" who go around breaking things if they aren't the ones handed the contract. Workers going on strike, etc all the fun things as usual.
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Yeah what probably makes my case unique is that my ward is suburban neighborhoods shoe horned with just enough surrounding rural areas to ensure to ensure blacks make the voting majority.

Won't look good for the ANC counselor if he approves fibre for the whites and Indians to get fibre whilst the blacks in the rural areas get nothing.

That or he wanted his palms greased before he approved wayleaves.
 
Polymathic said:
Yeah what probably makes my case unique is that my ward is suburban neighborhoods shoe horned with just enough surrounding rural areas to ensure to ensure blacks make the voting majority.

Won't look good for the ANC counselor if he approves fibre for the whites and Indians to get fibre whilst the blacks in the rural areas get nothing.

That or he wanted his palms greased before he approved wayleaves.
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That sucks man, we actually had a similar story here in one of the areas. What ended up happening was a blanket rollout that the one FNO did that would eventually cover the whole area, even if it took 2-3 years to do so.
 
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