South African fibre-to-the-home networks have enough backup power to last through Stage 5 and 6 load-shedding

mylesillidge

Journalist
Joined
Jul 29, 2021
Messages
1,519
Reaction score
1,423
Not even Stage 6 load-shedding can bring South Africa's fibre networks down

South Africa's major fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks say their backup power has been sufficient in dealing with stage 5 and 6 load-shedding but warned that continued prolonged outages could eventually impact their ability to provide connectivity.

Fibre offers one of the most reliable means of connecting to the Internet — including during power outages.
 
If it does not get stolen. Thiefs will continue to expand this lucrative opportunity. Sadly.
 
Metrofibre are liars. Our (whatever is on the other side of the ont) does not last through stage 5.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Yuu
Yeah network equipment doesn't use too much on the last mile, it's the exchanges and pops that can rack up wattage, but most of it is backed up.

Mybb should do an article on the backups systems at Teraco DB, these places are made to survive wars.
 
Vuma have jacked themselves up, last year sometime it would hold through 2 and a half stage 4 sessions, but this year not a blip
Went through a 3 day outage this year with Vuma still going strong. I have no doubt that they can go for weeks as they claim.

Not sure if it's because we have Vumacams connected to solar panels in our area. Might be worth investigating if there's a link @Jan...
 
Cannot say the same for Supersonic Fixed-LTE-A in our area, did not loose connectivity, but usability went to hell, what connectivity there was, was barely usable.

Still waiting for fiber to come another 300 meters closer so we can move. :(
 
Cannot say the same for Supersonic Fixed-LTE-A in our area, did not loose connectivity, but usability went to hell, what connectivity there was, was barely usable.

Still waiting for fiber to come another 300 meters closer so we can move. :(
So LTE gets hit hard because those towers do use a lot of juice, but also when loadshedding happens majority of people who don't have small UPS's will go to cell data. Which really floods the network even more, same for those that go outside and braai, still end up using their phones.

300m huh... want me to check for feasibility on something like a small FTTB package?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yuu
So LTE gets hit hard because those towers do use a lot of juice, but also when loadshedding happens majority of people who don't have small UPS's will go to cell data. Which really floods the network even more, same for those that go outside and braai, still end up using their phones.

300m huh... want me to check for feasibility on something like a small FTTB package?

Might help, but dunno ...

The complex next door has fiber, Telkom open serve is in the street below us. Complex next door extends from the street below us to our street.

If they could pull fiber via the conduits/ducts next door, then across the wall to us should be easy, in my opinion. Was told that this was not an option.

But yeah, been that way for years, started bugging Sa Digital Village and promises where made and nothing came of it. They disappeared, and now I am told Frogfoot, will be "bringing " the fiber. This being Africa - Lord alone knows when that will be tho.
 
Can somebody please explain ..does the fibre need power to run ? Ie like those openserve boxes with area yellow fibre strands in box you see on the street . I get the network side needs power to keep online.
 
Well, I've been linked to this thread through an article about loadshedding so pardon my comment a few months later.

Vumatel is starting to show signs of failure, but will not admit it.

Four times I've been down an hour into loadshedding, and all four times Vumatel have reported via Afrihost that there was no problem, and everything was within range.

Someone is lying, and I think it's Vumatel, and Afrihost's inbox must already be flooded with photos of ONTs.
 
Well, I've been linked to this thread through an article about loadshedding so pardon my comment a few months later.

Vumatel is starting to show signs of failure, but will not admit it.

Four times I've been down an hour into loadshedding, and all four times Vumatel have reported via Afrihost that there was no problem, and everything was within range.

Someone is lying, and I think it's Vumatel, and Afrihost's inbox must already be flooded with photos of ONTs.
What area?
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter