SADV Installation Feedback/Progress for Estates/Complexes

Joeyy said:
Well that sucks. They'll be closed from 14 December until January too, I'm hoping to at least get installed before that
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If SADV are doing the installation you will be lucky if you get it next year Xmas.
 
Mcwidowmaker said:
Looks like our install will finally be done by the weekend. They are splicing the last few joints and have started testing. Handover should be early next week. Then SADV have their standard 3 weeks of testing and provisioning, so installs should start in January. *fingers crossed*
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Good Luck with that! SADV sucks.
 
LEH said:
SADV are the worst. There service is bad and installation will take months.
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I don't think it is the worst. Service is fine once connected. The biggest problem with SADV is poor communication. They are overwhelmed by all the fibre request. Solution will be to give controlling stake to DFA, probably that will come with improved management.
 
Yeah, SADV are not too bad. Installation is slow, but that is mainly due to poor planning and project management of the contractors they use. Going for the cheapest quote and limiting your installers to a R10k per house connected install fee may save you money on getting the fibre rolled out, but it doesn't smooth out the installation process.

I have been extensively involved with the installation in our area and I know where the problems were. The project managers of the contractors are not well qualified and their planning are not up to scratch. For the civils, they collected labour as needed, not having well qualified teams delayed the civils quite a bit. Their project wasn't well planned. Poor communication between the different departments ie the people milling under the roads and the people trenching resulted in serious delays and budget over runs. When you leave a trench open for more than a week before rehabilitating, the grass dies and needs to be replaced etc etc.

The on site manager was changed 3 times during the course of the project. They were not planning properly, arriving on site without toilets, material shortages etc. This delayed the civils a lot. Once the civils were done, duct integrity tests were not completed properly. This resulted in the floating and splicing being delayed and some cables needed to be refloated and respliced up to 3 times. Especially the thinner cables tended to twist in the ducts breaking the fibres, as some ducts were not properly installed.

The cables were not labelled properly when they were floated (Again bad project management) which resulted in cross splicing of joints, which delayed testing and setting up the street cabinet. They had to test the fibres to determine which were which in order to label them correctly, delaying again for 2 - 3 days. When they were splicing the cabinet, they only came with two panels when they needed 6. Took them a week to get the correct amount of panels on site. They didn't have enough fibre and they used cheaper fibre (not rectractalink?), which results in joints needing to respliced quite a few times.

The contractor also didn't have the correct wayleafs to complete the civils. 90% of these problems are project management problems with the contractors used. It may save them money on the install, but it does create an inferior network that will cost them more money to maintain in the long run. It also doesn't win them many awards with project time overruns in our case resulting in more than 300% of the original planned project length.

At this stage I cannot comment on SADV's service, as our fibre network have only been handed over to them in December. Installs will only start in January, so I will only be able to comment after they have actually activated the fibre network. But the contractors used to build the network needs a serious talking to and probably some better contracts, penalties and management from SADV's side to prevent this type of thing from happening.
 
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Update

19/09/2018 - Sent information through to pinball to find out more, gets back they have not received the docs.
27/09/2018 - Email from SADV - contractor did site survey on behalf of SADV but never sent through their intentions to SADV. Apparently Contractor lost documents.
09/10/2018 - Signed Documents again, sent through and scanned backup copies.
17/10/2018 - Documents sent through to SADV, waiting feedback.
26/10/2018 - Agreement received, SADV proceeding without contractor, waiting feedback on new site survey.
15/01/2019 - Sent email to SADV to follow up still waiting for reply on planning stage.
15/01/2019 - Received a prompt response from SADV, they were shutdown over the holiday period and are back up and running, hope to have another site survey done in 3 weeks.
 
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nerevar said:
Still nothing, I had my installation done in October however to date still not live :(
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I feel your pain. Originally our "go-live" date was set for October 2018 but their contractors destroyed some units in my complex, so they had to get some new people in. Then in late November/early December students complained about the noise (varsity exams) leading to them postponing the installation till late December. Now the install is completed in the complex and I've been spliced up since mid December but our "go-live" date has been pushed out to the end of March 2019 for god knows why.

At least they left me this wonderful box which mocks me every time I go into my kitchen.

sadv_wallbox.jpg
 
Does SADV use bitc for fibre install problems? They came to install the box this week and said my unit has low fibre. This has apparently been logged with bitc but that company either doesn't exist or is just terrible because the phone rings 24 7. Does SADV really use this nonsense supplier? Is there anyone else that they can get to fix it instead.
 
Like all the posts above, we have SADV and Vuma. SADV took a really really long time to connect but the quality is miles ahead of Vumatel and client services have been good so far.

In my opinion the only company who manged to outdo Telkom in terrible service is Vumatel.
 
araujo3rd said:
Does SADV use bitc for fibre install problems? They came to install the box this week and said my unit has low fibre. This has apparently been logged with bitc but that company either doesn't exist or is just terrible because the phone rings 24 7. Does SADV really use this nonsense supplier? Is there anyone else that they can get to fix it instead.
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No, no such company on our list of subbies.
 
nerevar said:
So I finally have a green light on my BroadBand! now just waiting on the router, Die Brood Stellenbosch! Crazy to think its been since installation from October
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Did they contact you or did you just notice the green light active?

Also waiting for my line to be activated.
 
jun_tao said:
Did they contact you or did you just notice the green light active?

Also waiting for my line to be activated.
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Just noticed its on after talking to a technician outside saying the area is now live, waiting in my isp now for the seervice light hehe
 
nerevar said:
Just noticed its on after talking to a technician outside saying the area is now live, waiting in my isp now for the seervice light hehe
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Hey,

Is yours 100% working now? My broadband light is green but my service light isn't yet.

Cheers.

Edit: I called SADV this afternoon and told them my broadband light was green, they asked for my FSAN number for my ONT and they configured it remotely. Service light can on and plugged in my router and I’m connected.
 
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Update

19/09/2018 - Sent information through to pinball to find out more, gets back they have not received the docs.
27/09/2018 - Email from SADV - contractor did site survey on behalf of SADV but never sent through their intentions to SADV. Apparently Contractor lost documents.
09/10/2018 - Signed Documents again, sent through and scanned backup copies.
17/10/2018 - Documents sent through to SADV, waiting feedback.
26/10/2018 - Agreement received, SADV proceeding without contractor, waiting feedback on new site survey.
15/01/2019 - Sent email to SADV to follow up still waiting for reply on planning stage.
15/01/2019 - Received a prompt response from SADV, they were shutdown over the holiday period and are back up and running, hope to have another site survey done in 3 weeks.
20/02/2019 - Sent email to SADV to follow up on site survey, still waiting for feedback regarding this.
 
Those of you hoping to have fibre installed have to wait a little longer now. . . .

SADV is pleased to inform you that we have achieved our build-related target for the financial year ending 31 March 2019.



As a consequence, our focus has shifted to the preparation and approval of our budget for the new

financial year.



Please take note that all new build-related purchase orders will only be issued once the aforementioned budget

has been approved. We will continue with the planning strategy for the new financial year in the interim.



SADV will be in communication with you by the latest on the 15th of April 2019 with regard to the strategy and implementation schedule.



Thank you for your patients and your acceptance of our cost free service.
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