MWEB fibre: Cheaper and better

ads said:
Don't be fooled. This whole eThekwini initiative is a perfect example of a government dead set on destroying the communications industry, just like Sentech, Infraco etc.



My deepest sympathies to the people of eThekwini, who are being forced to subsidize this socialist experiment - or at least the fat cats that are milking it (mostly DiData, by the looks of it, but probably also some officials who awarded the tender). In the long term, this is destroying any possibility of a vibrant, competitive FTTx industry and access for all.

The city needs to realise (quickly) that it is not a telco, and that by being both player and referee, using tax payers' money to subsidize a few happy Internet users, is a recipe for disaster. They need to do one of two things - sell the entire infrastructure to the private sector, and give the wasted money back to the people of Durban, or open the whole network up as dark fibre at cost (NOT subsidized telecoms services) for anyone to use.
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+1, sums it all up.
 
Vince0 said:
.... and comparatively cheap for business.
....The service is good, 2mb costs around R3k a month without bandwidth - last I checked.
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Compared to what ?
Still a rip-off , imo.
 
Other providers have been doing this for years. MWeb is about 3 years after the likes of MTN, IS and other providers.
 
Vince0 said:
Ads - I strongly disagree: "using tax payers' money to subsidize a few happy Internet users" is hardly the case.

I think it's good for the municipality to provide basic infrastructure, like they do with water and waste. Durban city council is not providing Internet access, just the line!
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Agree. The best way for an authority to develop its region's economy is to invest in infrastructure. The same reason they build roads (heavily subsidising heavy transport), railways (supposedly for heavy transport, but mostly commuters), etc. You can bicker about the details such as management and rates, but the principle is sound.

Remember the main reason Durban is such a big city: government invested in the building of a large port, with taxpayers' money.
 
Great, I live in Durban. Where do I sign up?
 
Skerminkel said:
You can bicker about the details such as management and rates, but the principle is sound.
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You may want to have this debate with the 400 or so ECNS licensees, who have licences from the government to do exactly this. Not sure what business you are in, but what about the government collects money from all your neighbours, and then sets up shop next door to you, selling below your cost? Nice, hey? It's not just appalling economics, it's fundamentally bad, and likely to stifle the sector for many years to come.

What is much more important is that telecoms is, indeed, very different from basic infrastructure. Not much has changed in water or electricity for many years, and one can safely assume 30-40 year pay back periods for this. In telecoms, if you don't pay off your equipment in 3-5 years, and then replace it with newer equipment, you simply cannot stay in the game, and, of course, you have rising operations and maintenance costs - the taxpayer is in for a long-term problem, maybe even bigger than the electricity cost increases. Buildings ducts (and perhaps fibre) is probably fine, since this has a long lifespan, and the economics could be made to work, if it's strictly open access, and priced at proper wholesale prices (per fibre for the lifetime of the cable, for example).

Any model in which the government is charging retail rates (e.g. per minute, per Mbps etc) for a telecoms service makes them purely a telco, and hence simply taking business away from legitimate (i.e. licensed) private telcos.
 
Vince0 said:
The service is good, 2mb costs around R3k a month without bandwidth - last I checked. This is were MWeb/Vox or whoever comes in providing ISP. I use two of these fibre lines, one point to point and one to an ISP for national bandwidth. Both are for VOIP and I have to say there have been one or two issues, but they were fixed very quickly.
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Sorry Vince but you are sorely misguided. A Neotel 2Mb Broadband line is R3k including uncapped bandwidth. Same line is hot upgradeable to 15Mbps + free SIP channel. Only pay for your calls.

And you think you're saving money with that deal?

Money doesn't grow on trees... but then the financial statements of the Ethekwini municipality prove as much.

Techie "forgot" to put the rate limiter on a neoBB installation .. download speed 30Mbps,. upload 27Mbps, ping 1ms. Cost? Shhh but lets just say its a lot less than you'd expect.
 
JStrike said:
You already can, starting at R1600pm
http://www.neotel.co.za/wps/portal/neotel_small_business_data_solutions
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Interesting.

NeoBroadband Fibre R1824 incl. (R21888/year) symmetrical vs. ADSL R942.3 incl. (R11307.6/year) asymmetrical
[used axxess DSL just uncapped, not express as ref. R133.30+R413.00+R396] Both 1Mbps

How long is the contract for ? Not that there are many other delivering such a service.
Still way to expensive. Maybe FTTH is not that far off, and once the fibre is there (sorry day dreaming again :erm:)

Not really comparing apples with apples but still...
 
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Ethekwini is building the network with ratepayers money (we being ripped off again after the othe white elephant projects). They promised ratepaying residents FREE internet and telephone calls. RIPPED of everywhere in SA, Zim is better with no street crime
 
DjStyles said:
Sorry Vince but you are sorely misguided. A Neotel 2Mb Broadband line is R3k including uncapped bandwidth. Same line is hot upgradeable to 15Mbps + free SIP channel. Only pay for your calls.
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2Mb fibre line with uncapped bandwidth for R3k? Provided you pay R60 000 for installation costs if its feasible for Neotel to install it? I did check Neotel's call rates, and I wouldn't use their voice exchange but that bandwidth sounds enticing. Guide me!
 
Wow... some seriously misguided people here.

The eThekwini fibre ring was built to provide the municipality with a network for its own purposes, and the spare capacity is being sold off which I think is a good thing.

As for FTTH, a bit of a reality check in terms of it happening any time soon... its not, deal with it and move on.
 
ingeon said:
Are you serious about that installation cost ?
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I believe Neotel's installation cost to put in a new fibre trench, if no line is available in your block, is around R19k once off now, it used to be R60k.
 
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