Thanks Mark Neville for taking the trouble to write such a detailed explanation.
For most "consumers" the entire subject of services of internet, fibre, data, megabytes, bandwidth is all unchartered and little understood. I think VUMA will do an amazing job, I have seen the services they supplied to Gardens and Tamberskoof. Obviously there was some distruption, but unless we get decent fibre to OBS we will be left behind. I have been waiting 6 weeks for Telkom to service AHEM ART COLLECTIVE. I need the service so we can take advantage of online payments and offer our customers WIFI. These are critical basics for any new business. As a result of not having these services, the business become exposed to a SNAPSCAN scam, and most of our takings were removed from June through diversion of funds. So roll on VUMA, I am in. Overhead, underhead, anything, I completed the online "confirm interest form". Well done to all who are involved in this project. Regards Barbara Langridge -----Original Message----- From: obsnw@googlegroups.com [mailto:obsnw@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Chapple Sent: 28 June 2017 6:02 AM To: Trevor Hughes; Mark Neville Cc: The Observatory Neighbourhood Watch Subject: RE: [obsnw] Re: Fibre solution for Observatory Talk is cheap Trevor. Vuma use overhead lines... -----Original Message----- From: obsnw@googlegroups.com [mailto:obsnw@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Trevor Hughes Sent: Tuesday, 27 June 2017 5:38 PM To: Mark Neville <m...@neville.za.net> Cc: The Observatory Neighbourhood Watch <obsnw@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: [obsnw] Re: Fibre solution for Observatory Well talk is cheap Mark What I can tell you from firsthand observation and interaction with the contractors doing the trenching is that the pavement may look ok after they have tarred it but it is going to sag as they are not prepared to fix any of the broken drainage pipes. After the heavy rain storm on the infamous Wednesday, just about tall the drain pipes in Howe Street showed signs of leakage and sinkholes (mini little ones) The contractor has just piled up the gravel again and will compact and tar. The leaks are still there and will causing sagging in the pavement. Just have a look at the pavements were DFA/Plessey/Neotel ravaged then years ago. The sagging is bad and there were no obviously visible leaking pipes. Good enough for government work still holds true no matter what Councilor Chapple may guarantee or may have been gaurenteed. He is part of government after all. Trev On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 5:16 PM, Mark Neville <m...@neville.za.net> wrote: > A few weeks ago I met with two representatives of Vumatel > (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), which is associated with local ISP RSAWEB > (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), 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 > 20 Nuttall Road, Observatory > map.what3words.com/casket.triggered.largest > 083 259 1723 > 021 447 3107 > > On 27 June 2017 at 16:39, Trevor Hughes <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> >> 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/). 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 >> > WEB: www.obswatch.org.za >> > FACEBOOK: 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. To post to this >> > group, send email to obsnw@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from >> > this group, send email to >> > obsnw+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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