Mark thanks for this very detailed and honest assessment of our options But No one seems to have mentioned LTE-A which does not depend on underground nor overhead cables, nor phone lines nor LAN nor anything. And its super fast - even faster than fiberoptic
> On 27 Jun 2017, at 17:16, Mark Neville <m...@neville.za.net> wrote: > > A few weeks ago I met with two representatives of Vumatel (vumatel.co.za > <http://vumatel.co.za/>) about their company's plans to install optic fibre > cables in Observatory. They asked for a meeting in my capacity as Ward 57 > committee member. > > Here's what I leant: > > Vuma (as they prefer to call it) is a private company that specialises in > installing and operating 'FTTH' (Fibre To The Home') optic fibre networks. It > has been very active in Johannesburg for few years, and has recently laid > cables in the Seapoint area and the City Bowl. It has a fairly good industry > reputation, and seems to know what its doing. The owners have private + debt > funding (R3bn from Standard Bank I believe). > > Vuma's normal approach is lay optic fibre cables in ducts under the ground, > and extend this to individual homes on the request of the home owner, or an > ISP acting on the owner's behalf. But in Observatory they intend to string > cable between the electricity poles. A different company called 'Fibrehoods' > came to an agreement with the City a few months back to do this anywhere in > Cape Town where there are suitable electricity poles; Vuma recently bought > Fibrehoods and so have gained the rights to do this. > > Vuma's marketing approach is to try and get as many people as possible to > "commit" to their service in advance; the flyers though our letterboxes are > an effort to achieve this. They push for a non-binding "commitment" as an > indication that sufficient members of a given community are potentially > interested in their service, and then expect to "convert" at least 30% of the > homes to fibre within a six month period. > > If you're not clear, then the advantages of using optic fibre cables are > that: (1) optic fibres have far more capacity than Telkom copper cables > (though few people can afford to use the capacity they are capable of > delivering). This is what most of us think of as "speed" or Megabits per > second or Mbps or just "megs"; (2) optic fibre cable has much lower levels of > attenuation or signal strength loss; and (3) exhibits lower latency or "time > delay" in sending a bit of digital data between you and where ever. Last (4) > its not subject to electromagnetic interference, or affected by the weather. > And it's pretty robust and stable -- it doesn't need much in the way of > maintenance unless it gets broken. > > There are a few issues with the Vuma model that people should be aware of, if > they are thinking about using the service. These won't matter to most people, > but are worth documenting for the record. > > First, Vuma says that it is an 'open access' infrastructure provider. This > means that it owns the optic fibre network, and lets ISPs use it to deliver > an Internet service to you at your home. Vuma charges the ISP for the use of > its optic fibre, and the ISP passes this charge on to you (the end user) > along with the cost of the data that you use up. But its not really an > infrastructure provider; actually it's an access network provider, as it > operates an active network service over the fibre in a neighbourhood, and > controls the "speed" (actually capacity) of each connection. The ISP simply > provides the Internet bandwidth; the ISP has no control over the access line > speed or network performance. So really you're becoming a customer of Vuma. > If you have a problem with your service, you will have to talk to your ISP, > who will then take it up with Vuma. Which puts you two steps away from the > actual network operator. > > This is not a bad model; just that there is more to it than Vuma let on (at > least to end users). > > BTW, Vuma will be "backhauling" the traffic from Observatory to the ISPs > using the City's Metro Area network between the City's switching point at > Salt River Fire Station and the ISP peering point at Teraco in Newlands. > Needless to say, the City charges them to do this. The trenching that is > currently under way along the north side of LMR is to extend the City's optic > fibre network from Salt River through to Mowbray (though this work is not > directly related to the Vuma marketing push). This cable will be used to > connect up the Observatory library and the Metro Police Training Academy. I > have a commitment from the project manager that the contractor will > re-instate the whole pavement properly; this commitment has been made to > Paddy Chapel as well. > > Second, stringing fibre on electricity poles is second-best to burying it > under the ground. It's much more likely to be damaged, and customers will > have a cable from their nearest pole to the roof of their house. More clutter > in the sky above our streets. But on the other hand, we won't have the > disruption of the every pavement being dug up to install the cable ducts (at > least, not by Vuma. See below.) > > Third, and a consequence of point two: because Vuma is stringing its cables > from the electricity poles, it can't install big enough cables to run a > dedicated fibre pair to every house. Underground cables have 72 or 144 fibres > per cable, so each house gets a dedicated pair. But aerial cables this big > are too heavy to hang from the poles. So Vuma is going to use a different > architecture, called a 'PON'. This stands for 'Passive Optical Network', > which is a technology that uses unpowered optic fibre splitters to share a > single fibre pair with multiple customers. It works OK, but it does put an > upper limit on the capacity available to each house. Elsewhere, where Vuma > has installed underground cables, they have used a point-to-point dedicated > pair architecture, which is much better. > > As I say, these issues probably won't matter to most people, but its good to > be aware of them. > > I have heard that another optic fibre provider called 'Octotel' > (octotel.co.za <http://octotel.co.za/>), which is associated with local ISP > RSAWEB (rsaweb.co.za <http://rsaweb.co.za/>), is looking closely at > Woodstock/Salt River/Observatory/Mowbray. > > Full disclosure: I am part owner of an ISP called Vanilla (vanilla.co.za > <http://vanilla.co.za/>), which provides point-to-point wireless Internet > connections (as well as providing service over City-owned, Octatel and > LightSpeed fibre where ever this is available). Vanilla has a good customer > base in Observatory. > > I have not received any payment or incentive from Vumatel to promote or > advertise its services. > > I hope this helps you all to understand what's going on, and help individuals > to make an informed decision. > > If anyone has any questions about optic fibre networks, I'll do my best to > answer them. > > Cheers, > > Mark Neville > > > > m...@neville.za.net <mailto:m...@neville.za.net> > 20 Nuttall Road, Observatory > map.what3words.com/casket.triggered.largest > <http://map.what3words.com/casket.triggered.largest> > 083 259 1723 > 021 447 3107 > > On 27 June 2017 at 16:39, Trevor Hughes <tghug...@gmail.com > <mailto:tghug...@gmail.com>> wrote: > SO I live in Howe and its currently being dug up and fibre laid - > apparently by the city - a few years ago the other side of Howe was > dug up for Neotel fibre . Dark Fibre Africa were the fibre guys and > the work was done by Plessey. Look how shitthe pavements are where > they retarred. > > I see they are busy trenching in Lower Main Road - who is going to > benefit and why aren't the other companies like Vumatel piggy backing > and laying fibre in the same trenches > > The pavements are going to look just as crap in three years time as > DFA/Plessey. > > Good enough for government work anyone? > > If this fibre is city or telkom, can we expect them to give a hoot > about anyone but themselves? > > Trev > > > On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 4:21 PM, Colin Theobald <colintheob...@gmail.com > <mailto:colintheob...@gmail.com>> wrote: > > Yes I spoke to Mweb about that. The reason you got that email is because > > Openserve have one small part of Obs on their 'planned' coverage. It only > > appears to cover Strubens road from Durban road to just past Willow road > > (see http://www.openserve.co.za/open/fibre/ > > <http://www.openserve.co.za/open/fibre/>). This is the only part of obs > > that is in the 'planned' Openserve schedule and it's been there for more > > than a year with nothing happening. > > Mweb's marketing system only 'sees' suburbs. Not the actual streets and > > addresses. So the sms went out to everyone in obs for which they have > > marketing contact details. > > > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room > > > > TEL: 021-447-1066 or 072-063-1653 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > EMERGENCIES: 10111 > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ONW email: o...@obs.org.za <mailto:o...@obs.org.za> > > WEB: www.obswatch.org.za <http://www.obswatch.org.za/> > > FACEBOOK: facebook.com/obswatch <http://facebook.com/obswatch> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Other Useful Obs Numbers: obs.org.za/obsdir <http://obs.org.za/obsdir> > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > The Observatory Neighbourhood watch group. 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For more options, visit this > group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/obsnw?hl=en > <https://groups.google.com/d/forum/obsnw?hl=en> > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Observatory Neighbourhood Watch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to obsnw+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > <mailto:obsnw%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > To post to this group, send an email to obsnw@googlegroups.com > <mailto:obsnw@googlegroups.com>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > > > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room > > TEL: 021-447-1066 or 072-063-1653 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > EMERGENCIES: 10111 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ONW email: o...@obs.org.za <mailto:o...@obs.org.za> > WEB: www.obswatch.org.za <http://www.obswatch.org.za/> > FACEBOOK: facebook.com/obswatch <http://facebook.com/obswatch> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Other Useful Obs Numbers: obs.org.za/obsdir > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups The > Observatory Neighbourhood watch group. 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