The Constantia FTTH Thread

[Chris.Geerdts]

So it looks like telkom fibre will be live in constantia before the constantia fibre project goes live

We were proactive, as residents, and are getting fibre faster and we're paving the way for the approval of new innovations across Cape Town. I'm not fussed about who provides, as long as their offering equals or improves on what we (as residents) selected.

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

I would prefer Telkom Fibre over anyone else tbh.

And yes, definitely MWEB as they/Seacom offer the best bandwidth in SA IMO and MWEB's service is incredible.

Ok. Well obviously MWeb has a massive market share so must be doing a lot right.

Just for my (maybe our) edification, what is it about Seacom that you particularly like? How do you find Seacom rates against WACS in terms of latency from Cape Town to your preferred international destinations?

 

[PostmanPot]

Ok. Well obviously MWeb has a massive market share so must be doing a lot right.

Just for my (maybe our) edification, what is it about Seacom that you particularly like? How do you find Seacom rates against WACS in terms of latency from Cape Town to your preferred international destinations?

Everything just works, always, never any downtime. Bandwidth is near unshaped and highest quality IMO. Every other ISP/backbone I've used has had intermittent issues. I know it because I use the internet a lot, and the slightest issue I pick up on, even if it's just browsing a forum.

Not sure who sells 'pure' WACS bandwidth?

Latency I'm not concerned about as I don't game anymore, but I know gamers swear by MWEB...

 

[Wasabee!]

Everything just works, always, never any downtime. Bandwidth is near unshaped and highest quality IMO. Every other ISP/backbone I've used has had intermittent issues. I know it because I use the internet a lot, and the slightest issue I pick up on, even if it's just browsing a forum.

Not sure who sells 'pure' WACS bandwidth?

Latency I'm not concerned about as I don't game anymore, but I know gamers swear by MWEB...

Any tier one ISP I guess, good to know that Mweb have been providing decent service. As people have said, competition is good even if just in the service/support delivery of a company. It will place pressure on competitors to uphold a standard then.

 

[PostmanPot]

Any tier one ISP I guess, good to know that Mweb have been providing decent service. As people have said, competition is good even if just in the service/support delivery of a company. It will place pressure on competitors to uphold a standard then.

Indeed. Not to derail further, but being Tier 1 is so important when it comes to problem resolution. And this has been a huge factor to me, when I've had slight issues, technical specialists have called me sometimes for 30 minutes, taking down everything I have to say. This is all passed on to higher ups controlling shapers etc., and I have seen results shortly after I've reported them.

Because they can literally adjust their bandwidth, unlike smaller ISPs, 'ISP in a box'es, resellers, etc.

Besides that, the support is fantastic. Instant answers to phone calls 08h00 - 22h00, friendly staff, with a host of tools at their disposal to remedy issues, many of which aren't available to the smaller ISPs.

When people moan about and belittle MWEB, I've learned to just sit back and appreciate that all the bandwidth hogs and 'the internet downloaders' are not on my network.

 

[PostmanPot]

Hi. Ok, so it's reliability and customer service you've found to be good.

Presumably the reliability wouldn't be based on the Seacom cable itself! It was truly amazing to see how much it changed the landscape (pricing and data speeds) when it went live in SA, but it's had it's share of outages and maintenances, as MWeb customers are aware. MWeb's last warning on this was April this year, if I recall

Latency doesn't only affect gamers. Any browsing of a webpage results in more than a dozen round trips before you really the see the page. VoIP and video telecons can make a difference, and latency is potentially (not always) linked to jitter, which definitely affects call quality. Look, with Seacom we're not talking about a major difference, except when they are routing traffic via Asia, which they do from time to time. I was just wondering why you had mentioned that as a positive? I thought maybe there were new developments.

In terms of customer service (which is my main passion in life) I've had a few disappointments. The worst was when they stopped broadcasting our IP range on a healthcare service and their frontline support completely missed it until I escalated to senior management and my staff and I practically did the diagnosis for them. I tried MWeb twice this year and both times gave up on the basis of their support. Granted, they do answer the support line in just a few seconds.

Yip latency is tops on Seacom, some of the best which is why gamers like it.

Bandwidth quality first and foremost, followed by reliability and constant uptime without skipping a beat, followed by support (I never really need support, just once or twice).

Reliability has always been there since the Seacom issues about 2.5 years ago. This year MWEB had one hiccup which was less than a day. Simple, fire up another ISP account during this time. Of course I've come to expect the best from MWEB but we need to be realistic here.

No ongoing issues, capacity issues, etc. Other ISPs have been tenfold worse. Glad things have improved though.

Mentioned what as a positive?

What I've learned is that the best ISPs are the ones that have the least active threads.

Oh the MWEB MyAccount portal is also brilliant. Tier 1 at its best.

 

[portcullis]

Yip latency is tops on Seacom, some of the best which is why gamers like it.

Please post a traceroute / tracert from your computer to news.bbc.co.uk

 

[PostmanPot]

Please post a traceroute / tracert from your computer to news.bbc.co.uk

From laptop:

Traceroute has started…

traceroute: Warning: news.bbc.co.uk has multiple addresses; using 212.58.244.58
traceroute to newswww.bbc.net.uk (212.58.244.58), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
 1  192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)  2.525 ms  2.018 ms  2.006 ms
 2  * * *
 3  197-84-96-185.cpt.mweb.co.za (197.84.96.185)  10.777 ms  9.858 ms  10.059 ms
 4  540.po-channel50.cpt-ipc-2.optinet.net (197.84.96.186)  9.131 ms  9.594 ms  9.127 ms
 5  vl92.cpt-hscore-2.optinet.net (197.84.3.2)  10.064 ms  9.517 ms  9.469 ms
 6  12.te0-7-0-2.cpt-p-1.optinet.net (197.84.5.241)  162.533 ms  160.570 ms  167.273 ms
 7  w1-po0-3-5-0.thd-p-2.optinet.net (197.84.4.227)  155.643 ms  154.940 ms  155.813 ms
 8  be-3-777-thd-up-1.optinet.net (176.67.177.131)  154.100 ms  156.997 ms  157.076 ms
 9  xe-8-3-1.edge3.london1.level3.net (195.50.124.133)  153.467 ms  153.933 ms  153.922 ms
10  ae-232-3608.edge4.london1.level3.net (4.69.166.29)  154.230 ms  153.065 ms  153.672 ms
11  ae-232-3608.edge4.london1.level3.net (4.69.166.29)  153.852 ms  181.596 ms  153.749 ms
12  bbc-technol.edge4.london1.level3.net (212.113.14.222)  153.249 ms  156.740 ms  154.121 ms
13  * * *
14  ae0.er01.telhc.bbc.co.uk (132.185.254.109)  159.936 ms  158.737 ms  158.818 ms
15  132.185.255.149 (132.185.255.149)  159.907 ms  159.639 ms  159.166 ms
16  bbc-vip103.telhc.bbc.co.uk (212.58.244.58)  153.939 ms  153.938 ms  154.095 ms

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

154ms.

Not bad.

I'm using MTN Business today and got 195ms

 

[portcullis]

From laptop:

Traceroute has started…

 5  vl92.cpt-hscore-2.optinet.net (197.84.3.2)  10.064 ms  9.517 ms  9.469 ms
 6  12.te0-7-0-2.cpt-p-1.optinet.net (197.84.5.241)  162.533 ms  160.570 ms  167.273 ms

Those are good ping times from an ADSL connection.

I stand corrected, but that looks like West Coast / WACS traffic.

SEACOM would hop to Gauteng, then KZN, France and London. Ping times from Cape Town over SEACOM are usually 20 - 30ms higher than West Coast traffic.

This is the same traceroute from our offices. I know this runs over WACS.

Tracing route to newswww.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.61]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  154.66.93.1
  2     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  154.66.88.185
  3     3 ms     3 ms     5 ms  154.66.88.206
  4     4 ms     5 ms    15 ms  154.66.88.190
  5     4 ms     4 ms     5 ms  197.148.69.129
  6     9 ms     8 ms     9 ms  197.157.79.70
  7   151 ms   149 ms   149 ms  197.157.77.4
  8   149 ms   149 ms   148 ms  197.157.77.17
  9   150 ms   151 ms   151 ms  195.66.236.103
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12   150 ms   150 ms   152 ms  132.185.254.109
 13   151 ms   150 ms   154 ms  132.185.255.149
 14   153 ms   150 ms   149 ms  212.58.244.61

Trace complete.

 

[PostmanPot]

Those are good ping times from an ADSL connection.

I stand corrected, but that looks like West Coast / WACS traffic.

SEACOM would hop to Gauteng, then KZN, France and London. Ping times from Cape Town over SEACOM are usually 20 - 30ms higher than West Coast traffic.

This is the same traceroute from our offices. I know this runs over WACS.

Tracing route to newswww.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.61]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  154.66.93.1
  2     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  154.66.88.185
  3     3 ms     3 ms     5 ms  154.66.88.206
  4     4 ms     5 ms    15 ms  154.66.88.190
  5     4 ms     4 ms     5 ms  197.148.69.129
  6     9 ms     8 ms     9 ms  197.157.79.70
  7   151 ms   149 ms   149 ms  197.157.77.4
  8   149 ms   149 ms   148 ms  197.157.77.17
  9   150 ms   151 ms   151 ms  195.66.236.103
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12   150 ms   150 ms   152 ms  132.185.254.109
 13   151 ms   150 ms   154 ms  132.185.255.149
 14   153 ms   150 ms   149 ms  212.58.244.61

Trace complete.

I'm not an expert, all I know is that MWEB mainly use Seacom and that MWEB is always good. Perhaps WACS too for certain traffic. Thanks for the info.

 

[portcullis]

I'm not an expert, all I know is that MWEB mainly use Seacom and that MWEB is always good. Perhaps WACS too for certain traffic. Thanks for the info.

I've often wondered if there isn't some sort of back to back agreement between SEACOM and WACS, where they swop capacity on each other's networks...

 

[PostmanPot]

I've often wondered if there isn't some sort of back to back agreement between SEACOM and WACS, where they swop capacity on each other's networks...

Aha, I see your interest.

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

I've often wondered if there isn't some sort of back to back agreement between SEACOM and WACS, where they swop capacity on each other's networks...

Seacom had a lot of downtime in the early years and had to gain customer trust. They also realised many operators were creating resilience by buying from multiple cables. It was a natural progression from them to get capacity on other cables for themselves. That way they can also sell a one-stop, resilient service. It's done a lot in the industry anyway.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/19119-SEACOM-grows-network-boost-redundancy.html

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

I'm not an expert, all I know is that MWEB mainly use Seacom and that MWEB is always good. Perhaps WACS too for certain traffic. Thanks for the info.

You can understand why I was curious, especially as you gave your main reason for using MWeb as Seacom, but I understand why you would have thought that some time back before WACS was deployed.

My next question is about contract duration. According to MWeb's website they call for a 24m contract whereas many fibre services now come month-to-month. Perhaps you are happy to sign up for 24 months, or perhaps you will find when you engage them that they do have other options? Please let us know if you find this out.

 

[zeely]

Those are good ping times from an ADSL connection.

I stand corrected, but that looks like West Coast / WACS traffic.

SEACOM would hop to Gauteng, then KZN, France and London. Ping times from Cape Town over SEACOM are usually 20 - 30ms higher than West Coast traffic.

This is the same traceroute from our offices. I know this runs over WACS.

Tracing route to newswww.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.61]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  154.66.93.1
  2     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  154.66.88.185
  3     3 ms     3 ms     5 ms  154.66.88.206
  4     4 ms     5 ms    15 ms  154.66.88.190
  5     4 ms     4 ms     5 ms  197.148.69.129
  6     9 ms     8 ms     9 ms  197.157.79.70
  7   151 ms   149 ms   149 ms  197.157.77.4
  8   149 ms   149 ms   148 ms  197.157.77.17
  9   150 ms   151 ms   151 ms  195.66.236.103
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12   150 ms   150 ms   152 ms  132.185.254.109
 13   151 ms   150 ms   154 ms  132.185.255.149
 14   153 ms   150 ms   149 ms  212.58.244.61

Trace complete.

Dat local ping....

 

[portcullis]

Dat local ping....

How's your fibre progressing?

Any sign of trenchers or TLBs?

Our new trenching machine's earning it's keep

 

[zeely]

How's your fibre progressing?

Any sign of trenchers or TLBs?

Our new trenching machine's earning it's keep

View attachment 299584

received build plans yesterday. we're greenfield estate, so trenching is pretty simple.

They're running 24 pairs up to the estate from the DFA junction in SLP. Then from the ODF at our guardhouse they're splitting it to cover sections of the estate.

final go live is 15 november - 8 weeks and counting

 

[portcullis]

final go live is 15 november - 8 weeks and counting

Holding tumbs for you.

 

[portcullis]

Holding tumbs for you.

Watch Telkom quickly roll out 150Mb LTE on Hanskop...