Power to the people

[ShaunSA]

Is it the 1st April already? I musta missed two months of my life!

 

[DOOMIE61]

all talk no action...

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Well doesnt it say March in the article???? Thats pretty soon. And 25000 houses a month OMW

 

[The_Unbeliever]

*yawn*

Personally I'm getting sick and tired of companies waffling about their cheaper prices etcetera but nothing gets done...

Sentech, this one and Neotel all waffle on about their wonderful vapourware and vapourprices, but nothing gets done. Nothing happens.

 

[the_lobe]

Atleast this company is trying to be positive, and not just sit back and take it up the batty from "The Dictator". The fact that there are trails show that they are not ALL talk.

 

[JTech]

Too good to be true- probably a Telkom company which is used to try and sidetrack the TAG

 

[Gadget_guy]

I would personally have liked to be on the trial they are doing, I am not so sure about this technology, and what I have heard from estates that did trial this is that it doesn't work.

I have looked at the technology, and it sounds good, but I have my doubts

 

[The_Unbeliever]

*sigh*

I will play guinea-pig.


What is their website's address now again?

Seeing that they're active in PTA, maybe I'll be able to get something?

 

[DblD]

String up the market.....

LOL
One should link this article to the "Sentech to stir up the broadband mrket".

LOL

This guys are turning into jokers.
Can anyone say if they delivered ANYTHING other than some trial PLC in Pretoria burbs....

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Nevermind, found it.

Piffle... Silverton is not on the list.

So they have one potential customer less... will contact them and see...

 

[b166er]

LOL This guys are turning into jokers.
Can anyone say if they delivered ANYTHING other than some trial PLC in Pretoria burbs....

I have seen their little van once in pta, they were probably going out for a pie and not to install a trail system...as far as their ISP offering goes, i've been waiting since august'06

 

[Geriatrix]

All I can say is, yeah right, whatever.

 

[JTech]

Consumers have been waiting for years for a cheaper alternative to Telkom in fixed-line communications. They may be about to get it, but not from a source they would have expected. GTS, flush with hundreds of millions of rand in funding from African cellphone pioneer Miko Rwayitare, is about to establish a nationwide network it hopes will eventually rival Telkom’s in scale. It will go to the market later for additional capital.

Consumers have been waiting for GENERATIONS for cheaper alternatives....

GTS will offer a “triple play” of broadband Internet access, telephony and cable television. It wants more than 1m customers on its books by 2010 and to have its services available to as many as 5m SA homes by then. It also has plans to launch similar services elsewhere in Africa and is already piloting networks in Uganda and Rwanda. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Angola will follow by June.

1m subscribers... stop smoking the bad stuff, Smoking weet-bix is bad for you dude...

The company, headed by Adrian Maguire, will build its network using a relatively new technology known as powerline communications, or PLC. This technology makes it possible to deliver high-speed communication over the same cable infrastructure that delivers electricity into people’s homes. Maguire says the technology has proved itself and is ready for large-scale deployment.

OOOOOh... powerline communications.. Can you say "noise problems", "interference with appliances", "attentuation by transformers", "unreliable links due to Eskom's inefficiency" At least with every other technology when the power goes out, and you have standby generation you still have service. So now, with SA's already dodgy power supply, when the power goes out, you're really snookered!!! What a load of k a k!

Already, operators in Spain, Russia, Australia, Hungary and France have built PLC networks cumulatively serving hundreds of thousands of customers. Maguire believes the technology is a compelling alternative to the digital subscriber line (DSL) technology that Telkom uses to offer broadband today.

So what, measure for measure, nothing beats a proper ADSL line in terms of reliability

GTS will face challenges, though. It will have to work closely with municipalities, some of which may have other ideas about what technology is best suited for delivering telecom services to their residents. Maguire says he has received encouraging feedback from municipalities and says that agreements with some of them could be signed soon.

Yes, very big challenges: SERVICE, DELIVERY and RELIABILITY, things that are scarce in SA.

Good news for consumers is that Maguire wants GTS to use PLC to offer faster broadband than what is available today on DSL, at a lower price. The company plans to offer lower-cost Internet packages with generous 20GB monthly bandwidth caps (compare that to the average 3GB from Telkom). Ahead of the launch of its own network, GTS will also make cheaper bandwidth available to DSL customers. Maguire promises an announcement on its website, goal.co.za, in this regard in the next few days.

What fcking use is faster broadband if you HAVE TELKOM STRANGLING the SAT-3 and 3 GIG CAPS!!!!!

GTS already offers services to some suburbs in Pretoria, mostly on a trial basis. The commercial deployment of its network will kick off in earnest in March, from which time it intends to extend its infrastructure at a rate of 25000 houses a month (that’s to homes that will be able to receive the service, not actual customer numbers). “We have our technical model in place and it’s sustainable for rapid growth,” Maguire says.

Haven't heard of any of my customers talking about this... Technical model se moer... it will be the same "teething problems" can you say "Sentech MyCrapness" and "IBust" I am not going to subject myself or my customers to that **** again.

The company is certainly dreaming big. It will quadruple its staff complement in the next couple of months and in October will move into flashy new headquarters in Sandton. GTS plans to work through third-party service providers but will operate its own call centre.

Ahhh... big dreams... ****-all action, the Proudly South African way (TM)

Maguire says the modems needed to access the network will be made available free of charge. He also promises that GTS won’t lock consumers into long-term contracts. They will simply phone the call centre, activate the services they want (such as TV or broadband), plug their PLC modem into a spare power socket and be connected to the services they’ve requested.

Free of charge... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, there's gotta be some catch. TANSTAAFL dude....
Return of the killer bubbles... can you say i B U R S T!!!

It sounds almost too good to be true.

Yes it is too good to be true... trickery from yours truly Telkom SA (PTY) LTD

 

[Necuno]

hehehe what a good laugh for the morning.

we can't even get proper power output from the damned lines

how are their ever going to be 'cheap and fast' adsl like services ?

 

[JTech]

I am not so sure about this technology, and what I have heard from estates that did trial this is that it doesn't work.

I have looked at the technology, and it sounds good, but I have my doubts

As someone who is doing ongoing research on PLC, I also have my doubts. Knowing that the frequency response of the substation transformer tapers off at 2kHz, implies that they will have to inject their data signal on the 380V side.... I am requesting info from them to find out where they're going to inject their signal...

I'd personally love to see how their signal will stand up to a large bank of PFC capacitors that are often used.

I think if they did it at the 380V side it would be very impractical, knowing that in many older parts of JHB the power is a veritable rats nest. Houses next to each other can easily be on two different grids or substations. So Peter next door can have broadband, but you cant. I am sure that's going to make a lotta people happy....

There are too many factors that make PLC a very dodgy option for this kind of application. PLC is very old technology. PLC modems have been around for yonks, we built one in 1991 using a chip from ST Microelectronics, running at 9600bps. The most reliable PLC systems still use AF frequencies today- for a good reason- because it works.

Obviously this PLC broadband must be using carriers at high frequencies... a ripple modulated onto the mains. How is a transmission line designed for 50Hz, going to handle that???? A cable, that works happily at 50Hz, may very well become a super band-stop filter at 100kHz.

What are they going to do about possible interference with the ripple control systems?

 

[martin]

Ibiwisi

 

[The_Unbeliever]

As someone who is doing ongoing research on PLC, I also have my doubts. Knowing that the frequency response of the substation transformer tapers off at 2kHz, implies that they will have to inject their data signal on the 380V side.... I am requesting info from them to find out where they're going to inject their signal...

I'd personally love to see how their signal will stand up to a large bank of PFC capacitors that are often used.

I think if they did it at the 380V side it would be very impractical, knowing that in many older parts of JHB the power is a veritable rats nest. Houses next to each other can easily be on two different grids or substations. So Peter next door can have broadband, but you cant. I am sure that's going to make a lotta people happy....

There are too many factors that make PLC a very dodgy option for this kind of application. PLC is very old technology. PLC modems have been around for yonks, we built one in 1991 using a chip from ST Microelectronics, running at 9600bps. The most reliable PLC systems still use AF frequencies today- for a good reason- because it works.

Obviously this PLC broadband must be using carriers at high frequencies... a ripple modulated onto the mains. How is a transmission line designed for 50Hz, going to handle that???? A cable, that works happily at 50Hz, may very well become a super band-stop filter at 100kHz.

What are they going to do about possible interference with the ripple control systems?

That's why I asked them if I can volunteer for testing... and I will let 'er rip if they agree...

 

[feo]

Well how many times has an article popped up about GTS in the past few months? These guys have hopes that seem out of reach..25K homes a month, 1mil by 2010, triple play over PLC?! Is anybody here actually participating in the trials in PTA because I still haven't heard a peep from anyone involved in them? Im also starting to believe that this is just a Telkom initiative to get the attention off Neotel.

 

[Vice]

I've heard a lot about these guys, but that's about it.

 

[MrBushpig]

K right,

I'm usually very sceptic when an anouncement like this is made and also to posting on a thread like this because at the end of the day someone somewhere ends up hating you

Obviously this PLC broadband must be using carriers at high frequencies... a ripple modulated onto the mains. How is a transmission line designed for 50Hz, going to handle that???? A cable, that works happily at 50Hz, may very well become a super band-stop filter at 100kHz.

U could use a theory technology called e-line in which you launch a surface wave over the insulator which allows support of very low attenuation propagation over the entire frequency range from below 200 MHz to above 10 GHz. This should in theory also reduce the effect of noise on your signal.

However if you use the line as is using modulation techniques such as spread spectrum should in theory lower the effect of interference on you signal - only problem as far as i remember is you need a reasonable transmitter power then.

Moving on, when telkom switches off the power then comms should still continue as the medium isnt switched off and also your interference should in effect die.

Transformers are a bitch because the ones they use should filter out most signals, but it seems you introduce a relay at the transformer with which you bypass the transformer - which is gonna cost money but can be used as a repeater and thus strengthen your signal and clear it up a bit.

Otherwise a big b!tch of a problem is the fact that your gonna interfere with short wave communications, and maybe even radio station broadcasts, but this all depends on your operating frequency.

All in all the tech seems probable and not so ludicrous, but I'd rather hedge my bets on the unbundling off the local loop and waiting for neotel and other possible future service providers having access to the local loop which should bring down costs as telkom isn't sitting with the only access to the international lines.

Damn TELKOM!!!!