Mweb - why arent you using DFA's fibre?

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zeely

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DFA has pulled fibre through most metro areas and a tonne of residential.

whats stopping you from using it to offer high speed access to your clients?
 
zeely said:
DFA has pulled fibre through most metro areas and a tonne of residential.

whats stopping you from using it to offer high speed access to your clients?
Click to expand...

Hi zeely. I would say that the simple answer to that is cost. We're always on the lookout for new opportunities to expand our product offerings, but based on what I've seen on the market at the moment in terms of some of the business fibre solutions that have become available I don't think this is quite ready for mass consumer level pricing just yet.

Personally I'm also quite excited to see what the future holds in this area - fibre to the home would be awesome :)

Incidentally we do make use of DFA as a service provider for some of our backbone and peering connectivity.
 
Thanks for the response.

A large portion of DFA's fibre is in residential areas. I'm not neccessarily talking about gated villages - just normal suburbs.

I'm most interested as to why DFA would go through this huge capex if the product wasnt economically viable to ISP's

If its not viable for ISP's to make use of this fibre that is just lying there, what is the point?

How does one go about finding out the costs?
 
As I understand it (the very edited version) is that DFA are part of the long term initiative to deploy fibre to the curb and fibre to the home services in South Africa, however it will still be quite some time before we see this service ready for mass consumption.

As I've had it explained to me in some cases when they are laying core infrastructure it makes more sense to pass through residential areas in terms of distance traveled and the likelihood of cable drops being disrupted by roadworks etc, but this doesn't necessarily mean that that area is now 'enabled' for fibre to the home.

When saying it's not viable for the ISPs to make use of the fibre that's lying there I think you need to complete the sentence with a 'yet' :D

From an economics/costing point of view I'd assume that DFA see this as a very long term investment both in the future of South Africa and their organisation that will pay for itself when the project reaches the phase for large scale residential services to become a reality.
 
interesting stuff indeed.

WRT residential fibre - take a look @ this map. Of course its an isolated statistic and means nothing by itself, but the fibre route most certainly isnt a shortcut. They've gone out of their way to route the fibre into a very quiet residential area

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...34.081206,18.864555&spn=0.03039,0.066047&z=15

heres a pic i took when they were digging up my pavement - I assume they pull fibre for all the major operators, not just DFA?
HTpee.jpg
 
zeely said:
DFA has pulled fibre through most metro areas and a tonne of residential.

whats stopping you from using it to offer high speed access to your clients?
Click to expand...

Nothing. But it is much cheaper (capex outlay of approx R10M for router, shaper, maybe policy server) to just use Telkom's infrastructure, and get the PR benefit asking for reform, when all you want is a reduction in IPC costs, vs. >>R1B to deploy last-mile, aggregation (e.g. DSLAM), BRAS/BNG, routers for a redundant backhaul), when most likely the opex cost would not actually be that much lower.
 
Will@MWEB said:
Hi zeely. I would say that the simple answer to that is cost. We're always on the lookout for new opportunities to expand our product offerings, but based on what I've seen on the market at the moment in terms of some of the business fibre solutions that have become available I don't think this is quite ready for mass consumer level pricing just yet.

Personally I'm also quite excited to see what the future holds in this area - fibre to the home would be awesome :)

Incidentally we do make use of DFA as a service provider for some of our backbone and peering connectivity.
Click to expand...
Even Telkom lease fibres from DFA in a few areas....
 
They have literally ripped up almost every pavement in East London laying that cable. They have not done mine yet :/ Bastards.
 
Will@MWEB said:
As I understand it (the very edited version) is that DFA are part of the long term initiative to deploy fibre to the curb and fibre to the home services in South Africa, however it will still be quite some time before we see this service ready for mass consumption.

As I've had it explained to me in some cases when they are laying core infrastructure it makes more sense to pass through residential areas in terms of distance traveled and the likelihood of cable drops being disrupted by roadworks etc, but this doesn't necessarily mean that that area is now 'enabled' for fibre to the home.

When saying it's not viable for the ISPs to make use of the fibre that's lying there I think you need to complete the sentence with a 'yet' :D

From an economics/costing point of view I'd assume that DFA see this as a very long term investment both in the future of South Africa and their organisation that will pay for itself when the project reaches the phase for large scale residential services to become a reality.
Click to expand...
Yep, first install the CORE layer; the access network will follow in a few years' time or if there is sufficient customer demand for it to be a viable investment.
 
MickeyD said:
Yep, first install the CORE layer; the access network will follow in a few years' time or if there is sufficient customer demand for it to be a viable investment.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they're installing access layer as well... especially the residential areas where they've dug up every single pavement in the town
 
is a lot of this fibre that DFA is putting in not primarily for mobile network backhaul?
 
So the DFA article on the frontpage says : "Its up to ISPS"

and ISP's are saying "Its not ready for residential use"

so who to believe?
 
ghoti said:
They have literally ripped up almost every pavement in East London laying that cable. They have not done mine yet :/ Bastards.
Click to expand...

I'm 50m away from the beeeeg cable running through my suburb. :p
 
The cost of renting fibre from DFA is static, not based on speed. So to make it worthwhile to ISPs to use this to sell internet to uses will only happen when there is enough people per fibre feed rented. Or the prices go down steeply for residential areas.

My opinion at least.
 
Tinuva said:
The cost of renting fibre from DFA is static, not based on speed. So to make it worthwhile to ISPs to use this to sell internet to uses will only happen when there is enough people per fibre feed rented. Or the prices go down steeply for residential areas.

My opinion at least.
Click to expand...

Thats how mweb started the uncapped revolution.

Buy the damn fibre and offer a service - there will be plenty of users
 
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