Openserve Fibre Roll Out Questions

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nmccullo

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Hi All,

I previously posted how ward councilors in my town were trying to stop Evotel's fibre roll out (old-post). This happened in February and since then I've heard that a number of companies want to roll out fibre, including Frogfoot, Herotel and Evotel. Apparently they have all been waiting for "municipal approval" - our town did not have a proper wayleave bylaw/process, so it's taken the municipality more than 10 months to figure out how to write a policy document in MS Word and then convert it to a PDF.

I've noticed a couple of Openserve "Fibre Coming Soon" posters popping up in my neighborhood. They apparently have approval to roll out in areas where they "already have infrastructure". Makes one wonder why Frogfoot, Evotel and Herotel are still waiting for approval, whilst Openserve appears to be cruising along?

I've also noticed that we have very few Telkom poles in town - some areas are completely without , so I assume this means Telkom's old copper cables are mostly underground? Does this give them any real advantage, because I would assume that they would still have to trench to access those cables and replace with fibre?

Cheers
 
Similar thing happened in my area.

1 part of town (lets refer to it as North) have its copper infrastructure on telephone poles and then other part (South) have it all underground.

A smaller FNO called Linteg started trenching in the North in August. A few days later Openserve started pulling aerial fibre across its existing telephone poles.
Needless to say, it's now December, Linteg still haven't completed this area and Openserve's been live for a few weeks now.

Regarding south, I haven't seen a single trench. Just a few places where green ducts have been pulled out of the ground, I'm assuming they will pull fibre along with their old infrastructure.
 
ronald911 said:
Similar thing happened in my area.

1 part of town (lets refer to it as North) have its copper infrastructure on telephone poles and then other part (South) have it all underground.

A smaller FNO called Linteg started trenching in the North in August. A few days later Openserve started pulling aerial fibre across its existing telephone poles.
Needless to say, it's now December, Linteg still haven't completed this area and Openserve's been live for a few weeks now.

Regarding south, I haven't seen a single trench. Just a few places where green ducts have been pulled out of the ground, I'm assuming they will pull fibre along with their old infrastructure.
Click to expand...
I would have preferred FF or Evotel (I really want a 1000mbps line - yes I know its overkill.), but I've waited years for fibre, so I won't complain if Openserve is first.

I just get the impression the municipality is a bit more lenient with Openserve...
 
nmccullo said:
I would have preferred FF or Evotel (I really want a 1000mbps line - yes I know its overkill.), but I've waited years for fibre, so I won't complain if Openserve is first.

I just get the impression the municipality is a bit more lenient with Openserve...
Click to expand...

But yeah, I think Openserve/Telkom have like legacy approval from municipalities that dates back decades to keep maintaining and upgrading their infrastructure.
 
nmccullo said:
Unfortunately Openserve seems to have max download of 200... The uncapped, unthrottled part is probably what I'm looking forward to most.
Click to expand...

Yes totally. I (finally) had my fibre installed last week.
200/100mbps line.
It's really, really nice to have proper internet again, after being forced to deal with Rain :sick: and various capped LTE :crying: products.

The best part about fibre is indeed the fact that I can stream youtube / netflix and video call without having to worry about hitting any limits and be cut off for the rest of the month.
 
nmccullo said:
Hi All,

I previously posted how ward councilors in my town were trying to stop Evotel's fibre roll out (old-post). This happened in February and since then I've heard that a number of companies want to roll out fibre, including Frogfoot, Herotel and Evotel. Apparently they have all been waiting for "municipal approval" - our town did not have a proper wayleave bylaw/process, so it's taken the municipality more than 10 months to figure out how to write a policy document in MS Word and then convert it to a PDF.

I've noticed a couple of Openserve "Fibre Coming Soon" posters popping up in my neighborhood. They apparently have approval to roll out in areas where they "already have infrastructure". Makes one wonder why Frogfoot, Evotel and Herotel are still waiting for approval, whilst Openserve appears to be cruising along?

I've also noticed that we have very few Telkom poles in town - some areas are completely without , so I assume this means Telkom's old copper cables are mostly underground? Does this give them any real advantage, because I would assume that they would still have to trench to access those cables and replace with fibre?

Cheers
Click to expand...
Hi there!

So, in short, we have been held up in talks with the municipality. The community was angry at the poles and we were stopped. We know it becomes fatiguing to hear the same thing over and over, but we have been negotiating. Rustenburg is as important to us as any of our other areas. We've managed to rollout in a few other areas since we were stopped in Rustenburg and we see the comments of the Rustenburg community every time we announce a new area has gone live. We see you guys.

The problem is that the wheels of bureaucracy need to turn first before we will be able to do anything more. We appreciate the love and support we get from the Rustenburg community and we would just like to say that we are deeply sorry, but just as committed as ever to our roll out in Rustenburg.
 
EvotelZA said:
Hi there!

So, in short, we have been held up in talks with the municipality. The community was angry at the poles and we were stopped. We know it becomes fatiguing to hear the same thing over and over, but we have been negotiating. Rustenburg is as important to us as any of our other areas. We've managed to rollout in a few other areas since we were stopped in Rustenburg and we see the comments of the Rustenburg community every time we announce a new area has gone live. We see you guys.

The problem is that the wheels of bureaucracy need to turn first before we will be able to do anything more. We appreciate the love and support we get from the Rustenburg community and we would just like to say that we are deeply sorry, but just as committed as ever to our roll out in Rustenburg.
Click to expand...
I'm glad to hear that! I just find it a bit unfair that Openserve appears to have started with some sort of roll out, whilst you guys have to wait...
 
ronald911 said:
A few days later Openserve started pulling aerial fibre across its existing telephone poles.
Click to expand...
Hi, could I ask how did Openserve rollout in your area exactly? Coz we have another FNO rolling out here while at the same time some neighbors in the Whatsapp group have said that they were approached by Telkom/Openserve contractors to get access to the poles for fibre. Also seen lots of Openserve van activity..seems sus lol. They even sent the business card which showed the contractors specializing in 'aerial fibre'. My question is, did you see coverage change on Openserves map? because there is nothing my side and I'm hoping Openserve finishes faster and first as I hear their network is quite robust. Do they do some sort of hush rollout and jsut go live?
 
mathebus said:
Hi, could I ask how did Openserve rollout in your area exactly? Coz we have another FNO rolling out here while at the same time some neighbors in the Whatsapp group have said that they were approached by Telkom/Openserve contractors to get access to the poles for fibre. Also seen lots of Openserve van activity..seems sus lol. They even sent the business card which showed the contractors specializing in 'aerial fibre'. My question is, did you see coverage change on Openserves map? because there is nothing my side and I'm hoping Openserve finishes faster and first as I hear their network is quite robust. Do they do some sort of hush rollout and jsut go live?
Click to expand...

Openserve is using existing poles so they don't need wayleaves. New providers are usually not allowed to install poles and need to trench thus requiring wayleaves.

I've noticed Openserves new tactic is to as soon that see another FNO rolling out in an area they go and start deploying aerial fibre which takes way less time.
 
mono2 said:
Openserve is using existing poles so they don't need wayleaves. New providers are usually not allowed to install poles and need to trench thus requiring wayleaves.

I've noticed Openserves new tactic is to as soon that see another FNO rolling out in an area they go and start deploying aerial fibre which takes way less time.
Click to expand...
Now that they're doing this new tactic, do they bother to let residents know they're rolling out? Or even on their coverage map , do they put anything? Coz I've seen nothing regarding my area on their map , but I know that they are coming.
 
mathebus said:
Now that they're doing this new tactic, do they bother to let residents know they're rolling out? Or even on their coverage map , do they put anything? Coz I've seen nothing regarding my area on their map , but I know that they are coming.
Click to expand...

Yeah in our case there was nothing on the map.... then one day, a small part of the neighbourhood went live (purple) on the map.. and after a few weeks another, then another part, and eventually the whole neighbourhood was live and I could order.
 
ronald911 said:
Yeah in our case there was nothing on the map.... then one day, a small part of the neighbourhood went live (purple) on the map.. and after a few weeks another, then another part, and eventually the whole neighbourhood was live and I could order.
Click to expand...

Yep they don't show future planned areas anymore just went it goes live
 
nmccullo said:
I've also noticed that we have very few Telkom poles in town - some areas are completely without , so I assume this means Telkom's old copper cables are mostly underground? Does this give them any real advantage, because I would assume that they would still have to trench to access those cables and replace with fibre?
Click to expand...

You won't see many poles on the street side as the poles are usually running down the boundary line between adjacent properties, it's neater, saves costs and a single pole can serve 4+ properties. Telkom can utilise their existing poles & underground conduits without trenching etc so no need for new wayleaves and whatever other municipal red tape.

1.PNG
 
So a weirdly enough, yesterday (31 December) I caught some guys splicing fibre on a corner in my area today. I stopped and enquired who they were splicing fibre for thinking it was Octotel (Octo is basically done trenching in my area). to my amazement, the guy said he is a subcontractor for Openserve. I was shocked lol and asked when they would be live and he said by the end of January.
He was busy with what looks like municipal manholes, which was interesting because I know Openserve to do aerial fibre and I lack the knowledge of how or what being busy with underground manholes contributes to aerial fibre. Nevertheless, I am extremely excited and have my hopes up high

PS. Happy new year guys. I hope to all that doesnt have fibre, gets fibre this year so we can join the big bois!
 
mathebus said:
So a weirdly enough, yesterday (31 December) I caught some guys splicing fibre on a corner in my area today. I stopped and enquired who they were splicing fibre for thinking it was Octotel (Octo is basically done trenching in my area). to my amazement, the guy said he is a subcontractor for Openserve. I was shocked lol and asked when they would be live and he said by the end of January.
He was busy with what looks like municipal manholes, which was interesting because I know Openserve to do aerial fibre and I lack the knowledge of how or what being busy with underground manholes contributes to aerial fibre. Nevertheless, I am extremely excited and have my hopes up high

PS. Happy new year guys. I hope to all that doesnt have fibre, gets fibre this year so we can join the big bois!
Click to expand...
Thanks!

I've noticed that my residential area is listed on Openserve's website as getting fibre soon (although it's not shown on their map). I'm hopeing this, and the adverts/posters in my area, means we will get fibre soon!
 
mathebus said:
So a weirdly enough, yesterday (31 December) I caught some guys splicing fibre on a corner in my area today. I stopped and enquired who they were splicing fibre for thinking it was Octotel (Octo is basically done trenching in my area). to my amazement, the guy said he is a subcontractor for Openserve. I was shocked lol and asked when they would be live and he said by the end of January.
He was busy with what looks like municipal manholes, which was interesting because I know Openserve to do aerial fibre and I lack the knowledge of how or what being busy with underground manholes contributes to aerial fibre. Nevertheless, I am extremely excited and have my hopes up high

PS. Happy new year guys. I hope to all that doesnt have fibre, gets fibre this year so we can join the big bois!
Click to expand...

The main cables are underground, which then goes to various poles where it goes up and then it's aerial between the houses till wherever it ends.
 
supersunbird said:
The main cables are underground, which then goes to various poles where it goes up and then it's aerial between the houses till wherever it ends.
Click to expand...
Hmm wow thanks for the info. Do you think if they're busy with the underground now only that it's a stretch that the fibre will be completed by the end of January?
 
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