Lightspeed

[Johnatan56]

contracts, bets bet is to mail them and ask is it available in your area and if you require commitment cost

Done so, thanks for the help.

 

[saturnz]

Commitment of R30k in terms of contracts or installation costs in total?

Installation cost for us was far less than that, and the installation involved crossing Adderley Street and Spin Street, both four lane roads which raised several bureaucratic issues. You can also choose to amortise the installation cost over the period of the contract, as we elected to do.

 

[saturnz]

some extremely interesting developments over the past two weeks, if things go as I think they will we may have an uncontended 100mbps line within a year

our chairman having used the internet for two weeks has given his thumbs up and so I actually don't see any obstacles to us getting an uncontended line

 

[Johnatan56]

this price is for fibre rental & uncapped, the install cost depends of your area, normally its R10000 for the area some area's are abit more expensive and they need a commitment of 30 k.

but in the instance of mine its a complex so they will do advertisement etc from what I understand

Well, my area needs a commitment of about 36k. So I need about 70 houses (so about 30% penetration rate if areas around me sign up or about 3/4 of the houses in my road.) to sign up for 10Mbps. Wonder if I will get some to sign up for 20Mbps lol.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Woop. Building trustees on board. LightSpeed fibre rollout on track for our building and we'll be the first unit to get connected.

Now the wait

 

[Johnatan56]

Woop. Building trustees on board. LightSpeed fibre rollout on track for our building and we'll be the first unit to get connected.

Now the wait

Yeah, got about 100 people interested in my street, then they (lightspeed) said no because it is 2km away from the main route in blouberg.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Yeah, got about 100 people interested in my street, then they (lightspeed) said no because it is 2km away from the main route in blouberg.

Luckily our office has dark fibre running in the street in front of it. Will take a lot of trenching, but at least it's not 2kms away.

 

[Johnatan56]

Luckily our office has dark fibre running in the street in front of it. Will take a lot of trenching, but at least it's not 2kms away.

Strange thing is just beforehand I gave an address further away and they were perfectly fine with it. Then the next consultant, higher up, said no immediately.

 

[slave]

I see that the 10Mbps option has disappeared from their website and application form. Anyone know anything about this? They had the 10Mbps uncapped option for R499 per month. Also the messaging around contract length seems to have been changed to 24 months. Previously it was month-to-month where you paid about R1500 for installation which included router and 1 Voip handset, 12 months at reduced installation fee and 24 months with free installation.

 

[saturnz]

I see that the 10Mbps option has disappeared from their website and application form. Anyone know anything about this? They had the 10Mbps uncapped option for R499 per month. Also the messaging around contract length seems to have been changed to 24 months. Previously it was month-to-month where you paid about R1500 for installation which included router and 1 Voip handset, 12 months at reduced installation fee and 24 months with free installation.

As far as I understood things, the 10mb option was for high density areas such as body corporates and estates. So if the body corporate agreed to certain terms, they would install it into your flat at a cost of R1500. I'm guessing they removed it because of the ambiguity in the website's wording and as a result they received lots of interest from homes that did not qualify- wasting everyone's time.

I've had this connection for two months now, the novelty has worn off but every so now and again I have to do a test, this one is the best download speed I've seen.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Lightspeed is a bunch of ****heads sorry to say im 850m from the nearest fibre point although this is in their fiber coverage area and they want to charge me R45000.00 - R50000.00 to haul cable / trench which might take 3 months to my house so everyone else can connect on the node for their free subsciption. if the idiots think correctly if I sign a 24 month contract of the 50mb which is something like R1500pm x24months = to R62000.00 they will get their installation, but seems they want you to do the work and gather people in the area before they will even think of trenching. not to say I mailed them over a month ago with no response had to phone them so dont keep your hopes up. well thats unless you are 150m away from the nearest point or just are rich and pay upfront this should not be an issue. or just get everyone around you to inform them you want fiber in the area and they might consider it.

just an update that Lighspeed are charging for trenching although on the DFA website which lightspeed is leasing from

http://www.dfafrica.co.za/network/open_access/
Because we develop the physical infrastructure, we carry the cost of finance and construction

Which does not make all that sense to me if they carry out network expansion on their part why would we have to pay lightspeed to trench so physically they will not be doing anything. just catching coin. this really PISSES me off.

Im gonna give them a shout again tomorrow dont advertise products with hidden costs and make excuses when you cant handle what you are offering...!!

 

[Juzz Wuzz]

Lightspeed is a bunch of ****heads sorry to say im 850m from the nearest fibre point although this is in their fiber coverage area and they want to charge me R45000.00 - R50000.00 to haul cable / trench which might take 3 months to my house so everyone else can connect on the node for their free subsciption. if the idiots think correctly if I sign a 24 month contract of the 50mb which is something like R1500pm x24months = to R62000.00 they will get their installation, but seems they want you to do the work and gather people in the area before they will even think of trenching. not to say I mailed them over a month ago with no response had to phone them so dont keep your hopes up. well thats unless you are 150m away from the nearest point or just are rich and pay upfront this should not be an issue. or just get everyone around you to inform them you want fiber in the area and they might consider it.

just an update that Lighspeed are charging for trenching although on the DFA website which lightspeed is leasing from

http://www.dfafrica.co.za/network/open_access/
Because we develop the physical infrastructure, we carry the cost of finance and construction

Which does not make all that sense to me if they carry out network expansion on their part why would we have to pay lightspeed to trench so physically they will not be doing anything. just catching coin. this really PISSES me off.

Im gonna give them a shout again tomorrow dont advertise products with hidden costs and make excuses when you cant handle what you are offering...!!

ta for commenting on it Gatekeeper!

 

[Gatekeeper]

Ye forgot it basically comes down to crap advertising if they want people on fibre deploy the points and people will go for their product if it is as advertised there should be no problem but at the moment with their tactics of get people on our network for us I dont see this working for households. maybe complexes and flats. sorry lightspeed im then just not interested.. at least 15 people which I personally know have queried the product in the same area and they have told them there is not a demand we need to get more people. now these are just the people who know about it and are willing to switch... Personally I think they should shape up!!

 

[slave]

Thanks for the input Saturnz. Must say I'm not impressed at this stage. Got more than the required minimum in our estate who are prepared to sign up and sent off an email to this effect and asking how we proceed. I haven't even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement and is already been two weeks. Sent the mail to the support address that they initially replied on and info@.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delayed response. We have been inundated with queries and have not been able to respond to queries as promptly as we would like to.

The FTTH service is primarily aimed at residential complexes, housing complexes and blocks of flats. We cannot unfortunately install the FTTH service to a single dwelling unless it is in an already provisioned fibre area.

We can install the service to a residential street/suburb but to do so, a minimum guaranteed combined commitment (R42 950 per month for 24 months) is required from the residents taking up the service. If you feel as though you can rally this kind of commitment from your neighbours, we can by all means, start a process.

For installations taking place in residential suburbs/streets, the FTTH service is only available on a 24 month contract term. Once the minimum guaranteed commitment has been obtained, Cybersmart will then proceed with the installation of the FTTH service.

Please feel free to contact us should you have any additional questions

Please note this took 3 weeks to respond

 

[saturnz]

rather ironic that I received terrible responses and service from every ISP I tried getting to supply us internet, and when they did quote us it would be ridiculous sums of money

the first time I got hold of cybersmart, not only did they want to meet with me, we met over dinner to discuss the contract terms and how we would move forward

we've only received brilliant service from them, and our IT guy and chairman cannot stop praising the service

also I do not contact them via mail or phone, I generally visit their offices which helps I guess.

 

[Gatekeeper]

did you pay for dinner too .. ?

 

[saturnz]

did you pay for dinner too .. ?

nope

 

[Ipwn 4]

Saturnz how are you guys doing it, single 100Mbps connection with a firewall in place to ensure that everyone gets a fair share of the pie?

Just curious as I can image 1080p + torrents + speedtests might ruffle some feathers elsewhere. We have clients which have 100-20Mbps connections and the amount of b*tching between departments is unreal, seems people tend to forget how ADSL feels once they have tasted fibre.

 

[saturnz]

Saturnz how are you guys doing it, single 100Mbps connection with a firewall in place to ensure that everyone gets a fair share of the pie?

Just curious as I can image 1080p + torrents + speedtests might ruffle some feathers elsewhere. We have clients which have 100-20Mbps connections and the amount of b*tching between departments is unreal, seems people tend to forget how ADSL feels once they have tasted fibre.

So far there has been no need to manage the LAN, although we do have the capability to manage the network.

I am the major user in the building, and others are raving that they get 20mbps downloads etc. A german couple have german TV channels streaming all day. The businesses are raving about time saved downloading documents, sending emails etc. Basically nobody is complaining about the service especially given how cheap it is.

Once we hit 60 users management may be a problem, but at that point we will have enough money to contract for a 200mbps line.

Infact the connection is so under used that we are thinking of giving some of it away as part of the free WiFi project in the CBD.