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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
SADV FTTH feedback
- Thread starter MagicDude4Eva
- Start date
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
Not really very cheap. I am pretty certain that any ISP will be able to offer you a the same on ADSL at a much lower cost. I personally do not call anything fibre if it is less than 50mbps.
Yeah well, you can't call it copper.
ADSL is not available in the complex and the installation time is usually too long and quite expensive.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
TBH, I would expect a 4mb fibre connection to be absolutely perfect - i.e. it should really max out download to close to 4Mb/s and pings should be certainly lower than my dodgy VDSL:
I get that you have no other option and I just wanted to make it clear for other prospective customers that SADV is certainly not a good FTTH provider when it comes to either price or offering.
TBH, I would expect a 4mb fibre connection to be absolutely perfect - i.e. it should really max out download to close to 4Mb/s and pings should be certainly lower than my dodgy VDSL:
I get that you have no other option and I just wanted to make it clear for other prospective customers that SADV is certainly not a good FTTH provider when it comes to either price or offering.
I live in a Balwin estate in Greenstone Hill and SADV was chosen as the Fibre provider. The service they provide is good but the prices are terrible. The estate brought in another fibre provider, Bronberg WISP but their prices weren't any better. It almost seems as if Balwin or the estate managers (Whitfields) are in cahoots because whenever I enquire about other providers coming into the complex they deflect or ignore my enquiry. I've been in discussion with two providers who are willing to come into our complex but the complex manager keeps saying that SADV and Bronberg have exclusive rights to the fibre in the complex...dodgy :/
dalmine007
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2007
- Messages
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Just a point of note http://www.techcentral.co.za/dfa-acquires-stake-in-sa-digital-villages/64500/ it seems DFA ftth and SDVB have merged.
Good. Hopefully DFA will sorta encourage them to go open access.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
That reporting:
If it is a minority stake it really means nothing. However if it is significant it could mean a lot. Sounds pretty much like the SADV marketing "We are providing open-access via a MAO with Vodacom which we have signed in October 2015" (read: we have a signed MAO with Vodacom, but no other ISP has signed up with us and we are not going to say why).
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
If the body-corporate/HOA has not asked owners for feedback "exclusivity" would be illegal. I have done my own legal research and irrespective of incorporation an exclusivity is illegal and there is no reason that other providers can enter the estate provided that HOA/estate building rules are adhered to. The way-leaves are common property and belong to everyone. Providers such as Telkom/Eskom/Joburg Water etc have servitude to provide basic services and you are very well in your own right to have fibre pulled in (especially if the HOA/body corporates have no record of informing you of the exclusivity when you moved in).
You say Snake oil? lol, I think you have a point!
In short the table is identical to what we are sold at Serengeti. It however as far as I know is exclusive of the R290 odd a month we pay on our HOA levy for the honor of having an SADV FTTH connection.
SADV got their foot in the door with "triple play" which is void, video, data. Initially all DSTV went over it but after about 3 years people started putting up dishes and the rules got changed to allow it.
If you drive on the R21 from ORT to PTA you will notice a bill board on the far right next to the Serengeti golf estate in which SADV says "get 1 gigabit fibre to your home or business" at the top is the Serengeti estate logo and on the bottom they say "available at Serengeti since 2007".
Their fastest package is 15mbps at Serengeti at present. Or 66 times slower than the sign will lead you to believe.
In short the table is identical to what we are sold at Serengeti. It however as far as I know is exclusive of the R290 odd a month we pay on our HOA levy for the honor of having an SADV FTTH connection.
SADV got their foot in the door with "triple play" which is void, video, data. Initially all DSTV went over it but after about 3 years people started putting up dishes and the rules got changed to allow it.
If you drive on the R21 from ORT to PTA you will notice a bill board on the far right next to the Serengeti golf estate in which SADV says "get 1 gigabit fibre to your home or business" at the top is the Serengeti estate logo and on the bottom they say "available at Serengeti since 2007".
Their fastest package is 15mbps at Serengeti at present. Or 66 times slower than the sign will lead you to believe.
Last edited:
Sorry for bringing up this post. SADV have proposed to us a similar solution as above. R999 once off to pull fiber through and 3 month contract prices.
Did anyone sign up with them just to pull the cables through? And then get another ISP
Did anyone sign up with them just to pull the cables through? And then get another ISP
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
They will enforce exclusivity and you will be stuck with them. They also don't offer any other providers as they are not open access.
But in their proposal they said we can change to different isp like mweb?
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
Sure - get them to put this in writing that you can change to any other ISP within xx months. Once your estate is locked in with one provider who is not prepared to reduce exclusivity:
Their feedback about Open Access Network in March was that it would be live before June:
SADV does not have an OAN. They have a letter of intent from Vodacom dating to October 2015. I contacted all local ISPs in Feb/March about them working with SADV to offer services and none is interested. SADV can also not produce price-sheets for any of the other ISPs. I doubt that any OAN with Vodacom will be competitive (Vodacom themselves charge R7/GB for OOB bandwidth on FTTH / SADV OOB rate is a shocking R10/GB)
My suggestions is you try it out and let us know in a few months how it goes with your 10Mbps/75GB capped package at R849/pm or your 10Mbps/contented package at R699/pm. Ironic that those packages are actually called "Fibre Fast 10Mbps / Gold 10Mbps".
I suppose SADV works for people who sporadically check Facebook/mail. There is just no way that I personally call anything fibre if it is not more than 40Mbps. Cost-wise their products are more expensive than conventional copper (ADSL/VDSL) bundled offers.
Excuse my bluntness, but it would be absolutely dumb to sign up for any exclusivity beyond 12months with any provider who can not produce competitive price-sheets with multiple OAN providers.
Thanks for the input. Currently trying to source other parties but none are interested in our area.
Will give feedback on when they do their proposal. So far from what I read it's a 3 month contract.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
The 3 month contract is between SADV and the customer. The 5 year exclusivity is between SADV and the estate. Legally no estate (even with majority rule of all residents/HOA) is allowed to sign exclusivities with providers which prohibits residents to exercise freedom of choice (there are some limitations - such as state-owned suppliers which by default will have servitude). I would take my HOA to court if they decided to limit my choice in ISPs by signing exclusivities.
Can you kindly list any rulings by the courts on this? I am aware of several estates where this is the case.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
There is no court ruling yet, but my lawyers have confirmed that I would win such a case if I need to bring it into court (which I would do if our HOA ever signed such agreement) - there are quite a number of legal aspects how this can be tackled. Please remember that this does not apply to sectional titles and it would be extremely expensive to try and push this through the courts.
A HOA does not fall under the sectional titles act and their HOA "house rules" have no real legal binding and can not overwrite other by-laws and regulations. I don't think our HOA is going with any unreasonable exclusivity so I will not be able to test this in court...