So is my line really VDSL capable?

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shogun

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Hey

So we saw Telkom technicians working on a green Telkom cabinet in our road for a while last week, and then a few Telkom promo guys with notepads came canvassing around to our offices to tell us that our street was now VDSL capable.

Contacted Afrihost and they have logged a regrade with Telkom. Before logging it, the afrihost tech checked the line stats, said we had excellent stats and were connected to an ISAM not an MSAN (whatever that means). I was told it should take about 48 hours.

Today one of the afrihost support staff tells me that we are unfortunately 1.9km from the exchange, so we can't possibly support VDSL. Speaking to a different Afrihost support person, they are not sure who he spoke to and are awaiting feedback from Telkom still.

Question time. Is the distance they are talking about measured from the green box (blue trim) on the street? Or is it from somewhere else further away?

Also, could it just be a case of information not being updated on Telkom's side yet? Our line stats improved remarkably last week (from barely syncing at 6Mbps, to syncing at 10Mbps will full line speed after their upgrade).

The distance to the street cabinet is 220m as the cable lies.

Line Stats:

ADSL Router Results (Telkom Exchange to Your Location)
Current Downstream Sync: 10239kbps
SNR: 8.3dB
Attenuation: 3.0dB

DSLAM Results (Your Location to Telkom Exchange)
Current Downstream Sync: 1021kbps
SNR: 30.2dB
Attenuation: 9.4dB

Thoughts? Is it possibly just a case of the admin not being up to date with the tech guys yet?
 
Telkom supplies VDSL via either a Huawei MSAN or a French ISAM unit.

The unit can either be on a pavement somewhere or back inside the Telkom exchange building. The units are back hauled on optic fibre cable (in) and for VDSL it is copper cable to the customer (out).

The blue/green box is a street distribution cabinet and is a copper cable connector/distributor (copper in and copper out).
 
Ok, so checking this site:

http://www.speedguide.net/dsl_speed_calc.php

If I enter the value of 3.0dB for downstream attenuation, and it says my approximate distance is 217m. This is in line with the distance I measure on Google Earth to the green box. It also says that my max VDSL speed should be around 88087kbps... so 40Mbps should surely be capable?

I would be totally ok with what I was hearing if the Telkom guys didn't walk right up to us and tell us that they had just upgraded our street and that we should be VDSL capable.

Wonder if there is anything in these stats.
 
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MickeyD said:
Wait..... "green cabinet"??? Is that a VERY light green? (No blue)...
Click to expand...

Well on Google Earth, this is the one I found...

Cabinet.PNG

Not sure if I should be looking for something else.

Measuring that to our office is around 220m in google earth... which matches the approximate distance for 3.0dB attenuation based on that site I listed above.
 
That's an SDC. You need to find a cream cabinet about 3 to 4 times that size.

images
 
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What area/suburb do you live in? Could tell you what exchange you are connected to then.
 
MickeyD said:
That's an SDC. You need to find a cream cabinet about 3 to 4 times that size.

images
Click to expand...

Okey dokie... let the search begin. Has to be close for them to be canvassing the street telling us we are VDSL capable.
 
Rickster said:
May look like this too.

Telkom-MSAN-installation.jpg


Also why not go here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did the ADSL checker... where it used to say we were 10Mb capable, it now says

"Your request failed
No StationCodes exist for the DN constitutions provided."
 
MickeyD said:
That's a MSAN unit. OP mentioned the ISAM unit... :p
Click to expand...

I'm going to look around the street again tomorrow. Google earth may be out of date.

Would the line stats I listed above give a clue... and the fact that they could tell I was connected to an ISAM?
 
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Ok, so another 50m further up the road, I found this puppy this morning...

Cabinet2.jpg
 
MickeyD said:
That's the MAMA!!!!!

ISAM with power box next to it.
Click to expand...

Awesome... thanks for the confirmation... now back to Afrihost it seems.

I think it might just be a case of back office not being up to date with tech guys yet.
 
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Current Downstream Sync: 1021kbps
SNR: 30.2dB
Attenuation: 9.4dB


Those stats are a lot better than mine when I was on 10Mbit - my Attenuation is around 15dB and last night I got a VDSL router, Telkom accidentally put me on a 40Mbit profile as opposed to 20Mbit and it was syncing alright. SNR of 6dB give or take.

Quite sure you'd get 40Mbit quite easily and stable! :D
 
PsyCLown said:
Current Downstream Sync: 1021kbps
SNR: 30.2dB
Attenuation: 9.4dB


Those stats are a lot better than mine when I was on 10Mbit - my Attenuation is around 15dB and last night I got a VDSL router, Telkom accidentally put me on a 40Mbit profile as opposed to 20Mbit and it was syncing alright. SNR of 6dB give or take.

Quite sure you'd get 40Mbit quite easily and stable! :D
Click to expand...

Awesome.

Got the external reference number and called Telkom directly. It seems the order is still pending and Telkom say that regrades can take up to 7 days.

Afrihost support initially told me 48 hours, so perhaps they are a little off on their estimates. Will wait for Telkom to complete processing on their side. Apart from one apparently misinformed afrihost support person, it looks positive so far.
 
shogun said:
Awesome.

Got the external reference number and called Telkom directly. It seems the order is still pending and Telkom say that regrades can take up to 7 days.

Afrihost support initially told me 48 hours, so perhaps they are a little off on their estimates. Will wait for Telkom to complete processing on their side. Apart from one apparently misinformed afrihost support person, it looks positive so far.
Click to expand...

I went to the Telkom store on Saturday and asked them to upgrade me from 10Mbit to 20Mbit - Monday morning it happened.
Soo yeah, hopefully 7 days isn't accurate but I am not sure as my line is with Telkom directly and not an ISP.
 
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