Edwin, You make a good point. The whole range of LTE technologies hold much promise. An LTE service is a wireless method of connecting a device to a network. It can be used to connect a mobile / hand-held device (like a cell phone) or a fixed wireless transceiver in your home or business (which can then be connected to a Wi-Fi access point). Broadband speeds are possible.
A few issues to consider: 1. Any mast that has LTE transmission equipment mounted on it must still be connected to a fibre network for backhaul. 2. LTE uses electromagnetic frequencies, and so can still be susceptible to interference. Latency can also be an issue. Optic fibre is not susceptible to this. 3. LTE can potentially carry a lot of data quickly (more than 3G) because it generally uses shorter wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. This means that the range of each mast or high site is limited. Consequently the area covered by each mast is small (in other words, LTE has a small "cell size"). And as a consequence of this, a larger number of cells is needed to blanket an area like Observatory. Which means that locations must be found for several masts. 4. A current proposal to erect a new multi-tenant mast in Observatory for exactly this purpose has been the subject of objections. Unfounded in my view, but anyway ... 5. LTE spectrum is a scarce resource. As a consequence, the right to use it is regulated. ICASA (the local regulatory body) has not been able (yet) to come up with a method of allocating LTE spectrum that satisfies all stakeholders (including, no doubt, the Guptas). Hence at the moment, roll-out of the more advanced (faster) forms of LTE is delayed. 6. Because LTE spectrum is scare and regulated, operators must pay a high price in license fees to use it. These are passed on to the end user, so ultimately the price remains relatively high. The use of optic fibre is not regulated or licensed in the same way. 7. The capacity of optic fibre is determined by the capabilities of the equipment that is connected by it, not the medium itself. The capacity of optic fibre cables is potentially (almost) limitless for all practical purposes. For these reasons, both LTE and optic fibre have a role to play. I would not say that one or the other obviates the need for the other. Hope this is of value. Mark [email protected] 20 Nuttall Road, Observatory map.what3words.com/casket.triggered.largest 083 259 1723 021 447 3107 On 27 June 2017 at 17:34, edwin angless <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 <[email protected]> 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 > > > > [email protected] > 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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> >> 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: [email protected] >> > 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 [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email >> to >> > [email protected]. For more options, visit this group >> at >> > 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 [email protected]. >> > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> > For more options, visit 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: [email protected] >> 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 [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send >> email to [email protected]. For more options, visit >> this group at 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 [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit 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: [email protected] > 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 [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send > email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this > group at 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 [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit 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: [email protected] > 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 [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send > email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this > group at 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 [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit 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: [email protected] 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 [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
