Tongaat beach (Metrofibre) discussion (issues, ISP options, advice, etc.)

Nobody Important

Nobody Important

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Exciting times!

Metrofibre has been laying fibre in suburbs along our section of the M4: Sibaya, Umdloti, La Mercy, Desainagar, Seatides, Casuarina, Westbrook. Date to go live seems to be 26th August as per a message doing the rounds in neighbourhood WhatsApp groups.

What are our ISP options? Userverse ISP seems to have driven and motivated for the build, so kudos to them. Still, let's discuss what other options are available to us.

Also what has your experience been with the various ISP's, and also Metrofibre themselves? Has anybody signed up yet, made appointments for trenching in your yard, etc?

Basically a place to discuss the process and share experiences (good and bad) so we can all learn from each other.

P.S. MWEB mention on their website that Linklayer is also available as a FNO in the area. I believe this is a mapping error and that Linklayer is only active further north from Westbrook to Ballito. I have not seen or heard of them laying fibre south of Westbrook. this may change in future of course.
 
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I will be visiting the Userverse pop-up branch this weekend to get more info and I will update here.

WRT trenching from the main line to your home, Metrofibre seems to be offering this for free* during the current build stage. Can anybody confirm this to be their experience? Their forms says a salesperson will be in contact to advise if payment will be required. Here is the pricing if you choose to use Metrofibre as your ISP:

1597918242481.png

Other ISP's in alphabetical order:

Afrihost ISP:
1597918498332.png

Axxess ISP:
axxess.jpg

Cell C ISP:
1597918643154.png

Cool Ideas ISP:
1597923424670.png

Mweb ISP:
1597918729643.png

Userverse ISP:
1597918547005.png

Vodacom ISP:
1597918427323.png

There are many others but I cannot easily find prices until they update their coverage maps.

*"Free" is not always free. Buyer beware!
 
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ronald911 said:
Awesome. Good to see FTTH being installed around KZN, especially after Vumatel unofficially left the province a few years ago and been keeping a low profile here.
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A lot being done by the smaller FNOs, I think their plan is expand as fast as possible and start a bidding war amounts the bigger players to buy up their network/ entire company
 
Polymathic said:
A lot being done by the smaller FNOs, I think their plan is expand as fast as possible and start a bidding war amounts the bigger players to buy up their network/ entire company
Click to expand...

Yeap. I also smell VC with some rollouts. At least fibre is physical assets so unlikely to disappear after an acquisition - something that happens all too often in the software world.
 
A friendly chappie from Vodacom ISP setup a gazebo today at the entrance of La Mercy. I stopped in passing and asked for a brochure and just a few quick questions. He confirmed pricing as in post#2 and further said free installation, trenching in your yard (I mentioned my house is about 30m away from the front boundary and he said no prob, no charge), and free router, even on month-to-month with no claw back of any charges even if you cancel after 1 month. Keep the router too! Plus 100GB LTE data to use whilst waiting for them to setup the fibre line. Installation special running until end of Aug.

Now this was a very quick side-of-the-road conversation because I was going somewhere so I will take this with a pinch of salt. I will go back tomorrow or this weekend and have a proper chat and ask if all of that will be confirmed in writing to those signing up. If so, that is a very good deal indeed and I am leaning towards this.

If anybody else hears of build specials like this from any other ISPs for this area, please share. :)

1597942212500.png

Scratched out the guy's contact details in case its considered advertising on mybb. But you will easily find him at the circle.
 
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@Nobody Important Hey Man , just had my fibre drop done to my lounge yesterday, Seatides area.
As for ISP's , I'm looking at either CI or HC for the 200/200 , from what i read , both are are good ISP's

i got infor from MFN that the fibre is expected to be lit on 19 October...
 
ZANAIDOC said:
@Nobody Important Hey Man , just had my fibre drop done to my lounge yesterday, Seatides area.
As for ISP's , I'm looking at either CI or HC for the 200/200 , from what i read , both are are good ISP's

i got infor from MFN that the fibre is expected to be lit on 19 October...
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That's awesome. Can you explain the process? Did you initiate contact with MFN for the drop? What was included, trenching? Any charge for any of that?

I'm also looking at CI and have emailed them, but I would love for someone to give advice on Vodacom as well.
 
Nobody Important said:
That's awesome. Can you explain the process? Did you initiate contact with MFN for the drop? What was included, trenching? Any charge for any of that?

I'm also looking at CI and have emailed them, but I would love for someone to give advice on Vodacom as well.
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Spoke to a lady from the pop up branch , and she sceduled the drop for me. A guy by the name of Trevor called and came did the trenching and termination right to my lounge no charge at all. i also asked about the 30m allowence, and he mentioned that they not to particular about that, and willing to help the customer out ;);) just dont ask him to trench a km for you .:p

Heard some horrot stories about Vodacom , so i personaly will stick with CI or Home Connect , still researching BitCo for FFTH, we used them for FTTB and they were not bad at all, but that line haad SLA's
 
ZANAIDOC said:
Spoke to a lady from the pop up branch , and she sceduled the drop for me. A guy by the name of Trevor called and came did the trenching and termination right to my lounge no charge at all. i also asked about the 30m allowence, and he mentioned that they not to particular about that, and willing to help the customer out ;);) just dont ask him to trench a km for you .:p

Heard some horrot stories about Vodacom , so i personaly will stick with CI or Home Connect , still researching BitCo for FFTH, we used them for FTTB and they were not bad at all, but that line haad SLA's
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Great. I think I must go see them tomorrow then. I assumed that popup branch is a Userverse ISP branch.

Re: the ISPs, share what you find out with us as well. Very helpful info this.
 
Yes the Pop branch is in fact a Userverse branch.
PM me about the ISP
 
Nobody Important said:
I will be visiting the Userverse pop-up branch this weekend to get more info and I will update here.

WRT trenching from the main line to your home, Metrofibre seems to be offering this for free* during the current build stage. Can anybody confirm this to be their experience? Their forms says a salesperson will be in contact to advise if payment will be required. Here is the pricing if you choose to use Metrofibre as your ISP:

View attachment 896632

Other ISP's in alphabetical order:

Afrihost ISP:
View attachment 896638

Axxess ISP:
View attachment 896710

Cell C ISP:
View attachment 896642

Cool Ideas ISP:
View attachment 896708

Mweb ISP:
View attachment 896644

Userverse ISP:
View attachment 896640

Vodacom ISP:
View attachment 896636

There are many others but I cannot easily find prices until they update their coverage maps.

*"Free" is not always free. Buyer beware!
Click to expand...
Feel free to visit our Metrofibre pricing page - https://www.rocketnet.co.za/metrofibre/
 
Looks like metrofibre are ghosting us now. Build partially completed, and different messages from different people regarding go-live date. Next year April only?

P.S. Has anybody else from the area received a random call from Telkom regarding interest in fibre? Very odd, short call. Lady just wanted to confirm if I am interested. I said "yes", and she said, "okay, we'll get back to you in the future. Thanks, bye."
 
Nobody Important said:
Looks like metrofibre are ghosting us now. Build partially completed, and different messages from different people regarding go-live date. Next year April only?

P.S. Has anybody else from the area received a random call from Telkom regarding interest in fibre? Very odd, short call. Lady just wanted to confirm if I am interested. I said "yes", and she said, "okay, we'll get back to you in the future. Thanks, bye."
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Yeah , it sucks big time.... Spoke to the implementations manager at MFN and she mentioned only April 2021.
Vodacom Reps have no idea what they talking about or they just lying and trying to get people signed up. One of them told me the it will only go live after i sign up with them , they come install everything and then it goes live ..... LOL , chop....

As for Telkom wanting to find out about interest in fiber ... that will be great if we get a second FNO in the area.
 
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An MFN sub-contractor (introduced himself as working for Vodacom) phoned me last week and asked to come survey my yard. He said they would install the fibre into my home for no charge at all and under no obligation to sign-up to any particular ISP.

I agreed on that basis, and he came through and plotted where they would trench. Then the rains came so understandably he didn't come on the scheduled day to trench.

Received a call from Userverse (ISP with a popup store in the area) yesterday stating that MFN have instructed ISP's to charge for installation now, but since Userverse "wants to help the community" they will motivate for it to be done for free if I sign up with them this month. Hmm.. :notworthy:

What is going on here? Just sounds a bit too coincidental.
 
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Umdloti Here

AVS who are contracted by metrofibre to put in the termination points have done so after some issues (drilled into air-conditioning outlet pipe and damaged a wall).

Metrofibre now have to put in the ONT. Guess what though - again story after story - the guy literally told me it could take a week it could take 6 months.

Overall the metrofibre run around has been very frustrating. I just hope we don't encounter issues with the infrastructure in the future.
 
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