Openserve to shut down ADSL exchanges

SoundRSA said:
We tried LTE and 5G, seems to be terrible in my house, even had Telkom send techies out and they confirmed my house seems to be in a dead spot, was supposed to get a signal booster but that never happened.

With that poor service from Telkom being said, other than that I havent had all that bad experience since the days of 512k ADSL, my significant others' and my phone are with Telkom and the service has been decent, plus Openserve pricing compared to Vumatel looks fantastic.

What is killing me is not having internet during loadshedding as the copper exchange goes down, we're one of the houses with power during loadshedding (solar)

I opted for the 50mb/25mb fibre line with Afrihost at R797p/m. A colleague of mine stays in Goodwood and is serviced by Vumatel. The equivalent fibre line there would cost R997 for 50mb/5mb or R1117 for 50mb/50mb plus a R1500 install fee.
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He he he. I suspect I know which house is yours then as there’s only one in the street with a proper solar setup.

5G is great for me but it is also installed outside properly.

When fibre offers me the same or similar speeds for the same R999 then I’ll consider it again or if 5G stops delivering.

Right now I get get 300 down and 50 up on average, which no fibre package can offer me.

5G so far is Load Shed proof and my limiter is my UPS but also planning to go full bore solar real soon.
 
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TheChamp said:
Telkom's modus operandi is simple, scare away the people from its copper network so that Maseko can be able to retrench and get his millions, the more you people stick around and sign up for their copper based offering you are in direct conflict with their plans.

They are really not interested in offering alternatives and just want people to get off their copper network so that they can decomission it and get rid of the workforce in that department.
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Yes/no, the copper network is a liability. Typical life of a copper network is about 20 years, then you start needing a lot of maintenance, most of the copper of Telkom/OpenServe's network has had no maintenance in that time, so it will just continue to degrade.

You also have a jump in speeds required, since it has to compete with fiber, so you need to be able to offer something like 10Mbps for those connected, else they swap to mobile (since data prices come down there) or fiber if in the area. So you would need to pay to maintain a network that has no real value, that will be eroded quite quickly once spectrum auctions commence (whenever they actually do) or a fiber competitor comes in. You also can't up the speeds on DSL, since most are already at the limit their line can provide, you can't reduce cost/Mbps and you don't want to drop revenue.

And yes, fiber requires a lot less maintenance, it doesn't really degrade and handles weather fine, currently everyone says 20-25 years if you put it in the ground, that's more like a minimum rather than a probably, even undersea cables like the Southern Cross cable has hit 20 years, they were finished in 2000 at 100Gbps, they're now running at 10Tbit/s, supposed to last till 2025, right now it's expected 2050 will still be fine as it's only the switches that need to be upgraded. There's no reason buried cabling like in most of South Africa will have issues when it ages, so now real worries there compared to copper. Note, DSL with proper maintenance can last a long time, there are still runs from the 1950's in the US, but that's phone and coaxial, unsure about DSL, doubtful, would hazard 50 years with proper care, South Africa seems about 30 years which is starting to hit in most places, without taking into account vandalism, damaged conduit, etc. Copper will require more staff for the maintenance than a fiber network.

ponder said:
Even on fiber things die.
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It depends. GPON is easier to keep powered than DSL/AON. Most fiber networks in South Africa are GPON.
 
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SoundRSA said:
I opted for the 50mb/25mb fibre line with Afrihost at R797p/m. A colleague of mine stays in Goodwood and is serviced by Vumatel. The equivalent fibre line there would cost R997 for 50mb/5mb or R1117 for 50mb/50mb plus a R1500 install fee.
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Most fibre providers has backup, where the batteries has not been stolen. So you should be fine.
 
SauRoNZA said:
He he he. I suspect I know which house is yours then as there’s only one in the street with a proper solar setup.

5G is great for me but it is also installed outside properly.

When fibre offers me the same or similar speeds for the same R999 then I’ll consider it again or if 5G stops delivering.

Right now I get get 300 down and 50 up on average, which no fibre package can offer me.

5G so far is Load Shed proof and my limiter is my UPS but also planning to go full bore solar real soon.
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5G is fantastic for me as well. Getting 500Mbps a second :D

To be fair, the cell tower is next door to me :laugh:
 
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What is the life of fibre before it becomes problematic, taking into account the period of nastiness before it just breaks-?
 
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Moto Guzzi said:
What is the life of fibre before it becomes problematic, taling into account the period of nastiness before it just breaks-?
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If it has been planned and installed properly? 100 years assuming no cable breaks, no micro cracks, and no environmental damage. You need perfect, pristine silica glass to make this possible, which we currently assume is only possible if you make fibre cores in microgravity.

Otherwise, the oldest working fibre networks are 35 years old. New installations plan on a 20-40 year time scale before some fibre gets replaced as it develops more micro cracks.

www.ppc-online.com

4 Factors That Influence How Long Your Fiber Network Will Last

What factors affect how long optical fiber in fiber networks will survive? Can they last as long as copper networks?
www.ppc-online.com www.ppc-online.com
 
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I have seen time and money waisted on fibre(Not the fibre but around it) before the cable is replaced and the waist ended abruptly.
 
Well we'll see how long Openserve takes to install and activate.

The guys laid the cable about 3 weeks ago and they were working over the weekend on the cable at some points.

Afrihost says line will be active in 1 - 2 months.
 
SoundRSA said:
Woooohoooo. Been contacted by Openserve, they're coming by tomorrow to install the line
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Good stuff.

I hopped onto Telkom's LTE last year (the 1TB) pre-paid package and four months later fibre was installed and active in the area. We live on a small holding, there are even gravel roads here but at least there's fibre.
 
I have 40mbps PureDSL with Afrihost and I must say that I am more than happy with the service I get. Uncapped Unshaped Unthrottled internet and No FUP. I will use them as long as Openserve keeps the ADSL network up and running in my area. Vuma fiber is available, and only when Openserve switch off the ADSL network here, I will switch to either Vuma, Herotel busy building the network and Openserve also said they are interest in building the fiber network here. PureDSL for me is a great internet experience for a great price of R697 per month.
 
Openserve is taking longer to switch of copper than anticipated.. Our area have had Openserve Fibre since late 2020 and ADSL is still a thing. I know a lot of people who haven't switched to fibre despite it being available.
 
According to the local Openserve technicians they will just leave the ADSL lines as is till they get stolen
and just not replace them

Apparently it costs Telkom too much to remove the copper lines and shut the everything down
 
Telkom is fc they can't install fiber fast enough and leave copper as long as possible bcos openserve just won't get that much $ that telkom offers.
 
So my fibre is up and running. Afrihost 50mpbs - R797pm
Was on Afrihost PureDSL 40mbps but it was crazy unstable.

Afrihost customer service has been superb though hence why I decided to stay with them.
 
SoundRSA said:
So my fibre is up and running. Afrihost 50mpbs - R797pm
Was on Afrihost PureDSL 40mbps but it was crazy unstable.

Afrihost customer service has been superb though hence why I decided to stay with them.
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Only saw this thread now. That first pic though. Unbelievable.


Glad it had a good ending.
 
MEG101 said:
I have 40mbps PureDSL with Afrihost and I must say that I am more than happy with the service I get. Uncapped Unshaped Unthrottled internet and No FUP. I will use them as long as Openserve keeps the ADSL network up and running in my area. Vuma fiber is available, and only when Openserve switch off the ADSL network here, I will switch to either Vuma, Herotel busy building the network and Openserve also said they are interest in building the fiber network here. PureDSL for me is a great internet experience for a great price of R697 per month.
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I'm in the exact same boat. Latency is definitely better on Vuma than VDSL, but if you can look past that, VDSL offers much better overall value than Vuma Fibre.
 
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