How much does a Fibre network actually cost

[Adenoid Hynkel]

Let's not even talk about IPC and OFB prices. That's just depressing.

Please do share why openserve IPC costs are higher.
What is OFB?

Interesting thread.

 

[portcullis]

Please do share why openserve IPC costs are higher.
What is OFB?

Interesting thread.

There are two components to an Openserve FTTH service.

OFB and IPC.

OFB is the line rental that the ISP pays to Openserve. Those line rentals are very similar over networks. We may charge other ISPs R20 a month more for a 5Mb than Teralink do. Frogfoot may charge ISPs a couple of bucks a month more than we do for a 50Mb, but all in all, the "line rental" prices are more or less the same on the open access networks.

Let's say you are a client of Cape Connect on the Frogfoot network. We have a 10Gb between our core switch in each of the Teracos and Frogfoot. We then have a vlan that runs over their physical network to each client ONU. We pay per ONU that's connected. There may be a NNI charge for the 10Gb port, but that's it.

Let's say you are a client of Vanilla on our Internode Network. Vanilla have a 10Gb to us. We build a vlan to the ONU and Vanilla then pay per ONU that's connected. We also charge then a nominal port fee per month.

It's different on Openserve. We pay per ONU - that's the OFB, but then we have to pay extra for the IPC. The IPC is the connection from their DC to our DC. That's expensive. I stand corrected on pricing, but it's a couple of hundred Rand per Mb. And that is why all ISPs have to contend Openweb services. If I were to give you a 1:1 50Mb on Openserve, the price would be a couple of thousand Rand a month.

Openserve have in the past talked about doing away with IPC, but for now it's still here.

Automation Exchange on Vumatel works in a similar way - which is why we don't sell on their network.

 

[CT_Biker]

You don't make a cent for the first five years.

If every port was earning R600 you could make something, but what gets you is the people who buy the 5Mb ports for around R350.

You need a very long term outlook if you're going to do fibre properly.

How does all that has been mentioned affect the guys like Coreline, DFA and the long distance guys?

If you look at the DFA guys, they're providing overland backhaul to Cell companies for their towers too.

What I find interesting is the amount of infrastructure laying that goes on without approval. The main lines for the area I live in were dropped long before any wayleaves were approved and before out community representitves even tabled Fibre optics.

By the time Vuma were half way through the install, the MSAN's where almost ready to be fitted as the main backhaul was already in the ground.

Though mainly for me it's costing, and what the costs involved are. I mean at the price you're paying for an uncapped line 100mb with certain providers, it's as if, from a consumer standpoint you're being bullied into picking x ISP because of a preferential rate that ISP on x FNO network.

The special Axxess has on Openserve is what triggered this question.

Oh, and what Openserve actually doing other than being backward, and generally uncompetitive?

I must say, FNO's do make it difficult to actually show you what hardware they supply and use.

Something I actually laughed about with Vuma is the fact that their Network used to be configured to use DHCP, basically DHCP stormed their network control infrastructure after loadshedding

 

[CT_Biker]

Lots-o-text

If I am reading your post correctly, OFB and IPC rates are very similar if not the same as the Internet connect rates between mobile operators?

Where a consumer will pay a connection fee to facilitate a connection between two operators/operator and ISP and then a service fee to actually make use of the voice call service?

So FNO's stand to make more money on the amount of bandwidth each ISP requires rather than the amount of lines you need?

So if I am interpretating this the way I should be. An FNO needs to have a sliding scale which scales with an ISP requirements per area, rather than the amount of lines per ISP.

If you have a group of 20 Vox customers that require x amount of bandwidth and you have RSAweb with 20 active lines, but requiring 2x amount the amount of band width as you'd need ports that offer more bandwidth....thats where you guys really make your money?

 

[pinball wizard]

What I find interesting is the amount of infrastructure laying that goes on without approval. The main lines for the area I live in were dropped long before any wayleaves were approved

You sure?

 

[CT_Biker]

You sure?

Seemed to have happened in this area as certain parts of the area in which I live has been trenches, but nothing has been passed at a municipal level - the permit was granted a few days before the MSAN was put up and the cabinets were fitted.

I will comment that my municipal governing body were well aware of this, so it's not exactly completely wrong of this FNO.

Paperwork issue which needed resolving

 

[pinball wizard]

Seemed to have happened in this area as certain parts of the area in which I live has been trenches, but nothing has been passed at a municipal level - the permit was granted a few days before the MSAN was put up and the cabinets were fitted.

What area? The big operators wont disregard the rules. Some of the smaller blitz style cowboys will, the rest of us know we need to stay on the right side of things for the future.
That said, there are conditions under which we can work without a wayleave, but those are very specific and narrow.

 

[CT_Biker]

What area? The big operators wont disregard the rules. Some of the smaller blitz style cowboys will, the rest of us know we need to stay on the right side of things for the future.
That said, there are conditions under which we can work without a wayleave, but those are very specific and narrow.

Goodwood/Richmond Estate.

If I may, the MSANs are no where near a public road way. On grassy patches of land with a few Telkom Tarpoles, close to the boundary walls of a few properties.

No GPOs, Utility points, or drain/manholes nearby

 

[rph72]

Here I am trying to figure out why Vuma alternates between GPON and AEN depending on which side of the road you live - other than the obvious answer being that usually light poles are only on one side of the road

Vumatel's hybrid network in Goodwood is AEN, no matter on which side of the street you are. I'm aerial and my connection is DHCP.

 

[Thor]

Subscribes

 

[CT_Biker]

Vumatel's hybrid network in Goodwood is AEN, no matter on which side of the street you are. I'm aerial and my connection is DHCP.

AEN would be a bit difficult to deploy on a pole...It is fundamentally a completely different design which requires more Fibre strands.

The first give away should be the Optical Splitter(I think there is one on every light pole), which splits a single fibre pair into two houses....I stool on my wall to have a closer look, and examined the splitter during the install.

 

[rph72]

AEN would be a bit difficult to deploy on a pole...It is fundamentally a completely different design which requires more Fibre strands.

The first give away should be the Optical Splitter(I think there is one on every light pole), which splits a single fibre pair into two houses....I stool on my wall to have a closer look, and examined the splitter during the install.

When Vumatel started with aerial deployment on Observatory it was GPON. They have since then modified their deployment method. Vumatel confired to me the network is AEN.

My ISP is under the impression that my connection is trenched although I have aerial fibre. I questioned their data usage portal as it wasn't showing any data usage. They then confirmed that usage cannot be tracked on Vumatel trenched.

Usage can only be tracked on a PPPoE connection according to them. No idea how ISP's then track capped accounts.

 

[CT_Biker]

When Vumatel started with aerial deployment on Observatory it was GPON. They have since then modified their deployment method. Vumatel confired to me the network is AEN.

My ISP is under the impression that my connection is trenched although I have aerial fibre. I questioned their data usage portal as it wasn't showing any data usage. They then confirmed that usage cannot be tracked on Vumatel trenched.

Usage can only be tracked on a PPPoE connection according to them. No idea how ISP's then track capped accounts.

That does not make logical sense, if I am honest. Where would you mount an optical repeater on a pole - those need electricity. Aerial fibre is usually passive because it requires less powered equipment.

It may be that Aerial in goodwood is split in a manhole and then run up a pole into passive hardware.

 

[rph72]

It may be that Aerial in goodwood is split in a manhole and then run up a pole into passive hardware.

Must be this, I'm no expert. I will believe what Vumatel told me. They know more about their network than the ISP's.

 

[CT_Biker]

Must be this, I'm no expert. I will believe what Vumatel told me. They know more about their network than the ISP's.

I was slightly cautious of what was actually talked about at the meeting. I'll take it with a dash of salt.

I will say that many have been led to believe that GPON is rubbish compared to AON/AEN, but we shall see I guess.

 

[rph72]

I was slightly cautious of what was actually talked about at the meeting. I'll take it with a dash of salt.

I will say that many have been led to believe that GPON is rubbish compared to AON/AEN, but we shall see I guess.

Message received from Vumatel when the matter was discussed regarding their network.

We don't want to give away too much info on social media. Our planning and deployment is in essence our intellectual property.

 

[CT_Biker]

Message received from Vumatel when the matter was discussed regarding their network.

They do not have to discuss it with the general public. Nothing stopping those who are curious from figuring it out.

 

[Thor]

How does the incentives work example Openserve (which you all say are expensive because of how they do things) and SADV.

If SADV installs fiber in a neighborhood what would make them want to be affordable? I mean there is no competition it's not like I can tell SADV hey look TT connect is cheaper - I will never be able to get that I am stuck with whichever company laid the infrastructure.

Which feels flawed?

 

[Prof.Merlin]

I find this topic incredibly interesting.

Would be great if @rpm and @Jamie McKane could do some more research on this topic and do a good article.

 

[ThatOtherDude]

Splitters are not installed on every pole.
More like on every 16th pole, or not on poles at all, but rather all 32 way splitters are installed in a large multiufunction joint inside a man hole.



think of 1 fibre strand coming from the OLT line card port.

this fibre is fed into a 2 way splitter inside the street cabinet.
1 fibre becomes 2 fibres.

each of these 2 fibres is then fed into a 32 way splitter closer to the street that they're supposed to feed.
1 becomes 32.

your 1 fibre (from the single OLT line card port) therefore feeds 64 homes.

Only the OLT requires power.