the one percent

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timesplice

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#116336 25-Apr-2013 21:32

Have just been initiated into the world of UFB. I must say it has been a interesting ride from the beginning - but well worth the wait. Have read pretty much every post in here about their installs etc so I thought I might give back to the community with my own experience.

Last November we had the notice drop in our suburban st in Gladstone, Invercargill of the work about to begin installing the microduct in our area. The work was completed within the month and I was chatting to a few of the engineers from time to time and they seemed to think by March we should be able to get connected. I also mentioned about Orcon's unlimited plan UFB FS for $134 and that was seen by them as extremely cheap and they were not aware it would be available for that price.

Originally planning to go with Orcon, given the price and unlimited data, but got put off by the terms of the contract and the arbitrary concept of unlimited that was created. I mean a fair use policy applies but that is not stipulated how that would be determined and can change with their discretion.

So went with Snap.

Things went a little too well at times, several days after ordering the service I got a call from a Downer Engineer that he will be getting the Tech out there in two days to do the install and he would be calling out that night to scope the works.

I still had a few questions and the Order on the snap website stated that Snap would be in contact to discuss the next steps but wanted to control the timeline so I would not be paying for old ADSL and UFB at the same time. Ended up getting control of the situation and getting a date that would suit me.

Although interestingly enough Downer/Chrous came a further two times to do the install, talk about keen, love your work team!

So install day came and it was a good experience to get this amazing product brought all the way into your home and the work that goes into it is pretty amazing.

Here are some pics of the progress and install. I managed to get them to retain the old copper as well as there was an existing duct. I had to push for this though and was told on more than one occasion that it would probably be pulled out. The plan was to use my copper to pull in the microduct.

The End Result?

Before: (Slingshot AYCE ADSL2+)

After: (Snap Lightwave Home Ultra)

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#805637 25-Apr-2013 22:23

What's with all the fibre lying on the ground?

InstallerUFB

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#805672 26-Apr-2013 04:44

linw: What's with all the fibre lying on the ground?

For the Chorus UFB Network -

For Yr 1&2 architecture - The 'drums' of blown fibre come in fixed lenghts (they are preconnectorised for the cabinet end) / The larger/longer reels in 100m steps / The appropriate lenght is chosed to get to the ETP (longer then actualy required to make sure that it gets there) with the excess being blown through and then cut off as required. (this excess is what is shown on the ground in this install)

Yr 3 architecture - only the required amount of fibre is blown throught / it is not connectorised / It is not blown all the way from the cabinet but from an intermediate consolidation point called an ABFAT (Air Blown Fibre Access Terminal)

jtbthatsme

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#805675 26-Apr-2013 06:41

Hey thanks for the pics love the difference between the two speed tests too. What's the difference in cost between your former plan and your current Snap plan??? Also what was your cost for the install??? As in did you need to buy / pay for anything or literally just get in touch with your new ISP and sign up to a fibre plan???

sbiddle

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#805693 26-Apr-2013 07:37

All residential UFB installs are free and have been since the launch. The only exception is some special circumstances where special cabling requirements may exist.

The only cost may be for hardware, but that's something which forms part of the contract between the end user and their RSP.

timesplice

22 posts

Geek

#805846 26-Apr-2013 11:10

jtbthatsme: Hey thanks for the pics love the difference between the two speed tests too. What's the difference in cost between your former plan and your current Snap plan??? Also what was your cost for the install??? As in did you need to buy / pay for anything or literally just get in touch with your new ISP and sign up to a fibre plan???

My Slingshot AYCE plan cost around $115 and I on average transferred about 350GB per month
it faced only light shaping usually at night 6PM - 1AM. Some months over 500GB was transferred.

My network firewall appliance gave me pretty good stats on how much we used and on what so this went into deciding on what we would need with Snap. For instance around 2-4Gb a day was youtube. I predicted that data use overall would increase - given the novelty of UFB.

With Snap base plan with 100GB + 100Gb free + 250Gb added on. and also AYCE youtube.
giving total cost of $140 per month (excluding calling).

There was no cost for installation but I am locked into a 24Month contract.
I had to pay the first months up front of $155 (140 + 15 for shipping of router)

I timed the whole thing around the disconnection date with slingshot and my fortnightly payments so I would not be paying for two services at the same time.
The most disappointing thing was I was not able to keep our old phone number. Slingshot had this on their equipment and Snap told me it would cost $150 to port it over. So I opted to just get a new number.

Slingshot is still connected here, I tried to do some load balancing with both the UFB and ADSL connections but for some reason it always favored the UFB connection LOL and I have been unable to saturate it yet.

Downloading from University of Canterbury mirrors has given the best speed so far with around 10.5MB/s which is as good as transferring internally on the LAN.

jtbthatsme

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#805856 26-Apr-2013 11:33

Thanks for that I'm with Snap already and will be moving from my apartment later this year back to Lower Hutt so potentially have the chance to move into a fibre zone so knowing the basics of the cost is important. For me we use less than 250 gig a month (thanks to the $5 YouTube add on) so will be pricing similar to yours minus the 250 data pack with calling on top.

kiwi_64

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#805868 26-Apr-2013 11:57

another good review (thanks) I'm in the process of considering an install as well and threads like these help consider the logistics.
I've gotta say, I'm not a big fan of that conduit half way up the wall to the ONT... really makes a strong case (to) for installing a more discrete case/panel somewhere else in the house.

thanks for write up

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LennonNZ

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#805870 26-Apr-2013 12:04

What is the "standard" for the way the fibre should come into the wall mount base for the ONT?

In on the left bottom, around and around and out on the right bottom to the ONT?
Or in on the right bottom, around and around and out on the left bottom and then into the ONT?

I've seen it been done both ways. The ONT base left hand side is slightly larger and has an arrow into it so I presume its designed to come in that way (as the piping can go into a lot easier) and the fibre comes out (to the ONT) on the right hand side..

timesplice

22 posts

Geek

#805879 26-Apr-2013 12:34

kiwi_64: another good review (thanks) I'm in the process of considering an install as well and threads like these help consider the logistics.
I've gotta say, I'm not a big fan of that conduit half way up the wall to the ONT... really makes a strong case (to) for installing a more discrete case/panel somewhere else in the house.

thanks for write up

Yea I asked them to install it there. Am using that room for my office and have Ethernet running there from all over the house. Have this rack thing built from old TV cabinets that sits in front of it so it cant be seen. It is essentially my wiring closet but its just a room I use for building/fixing things.

The tech originally wanted to put it ground level by the power point, but I had concerns about my children who do go into the office a bit being at their level. Being where it is, it is well out of their reach and I can see at a glance from the door if there is a problem with the UFB network or whatever.

Which actually brings me to a point I had about the whole install job.

A lot of effort goes into installing this fiber into your house. Microduct is run from the street to the ETP on the side of your house and blown through form the local cabinet. The microduct was sheathed in a metal foil to assist in locating and then again in a ridged plastic. Then from there a hybrid cable is run with two optical fibers (orange and blue) and two copper pairs. This itself has a coating a lot like cat5/6 and is installed inside another conduit under your house. One optical fusion splice is made at the ETP and then a second at the ONT to connect to a Terminated Pigtail.
So much mechanical protection is used on the fiber all the way to the ONT and then for some reason, this little pigtail is left dangling, unprotected and vulnerable where it connects to the ONT.

There are many scenarios how this could get damaged and kids come up a bit.

I queried the installers about maintenance and if it ever got damaged who is responsible - they were not sure but said that it would probably fall on the customer. Something I need to follow up with Snap.

Would hate to think how much a repair would/could cost. With copper I could just do it myself (and did) but with fiber the gear to work with it runs expensive.

The install itself I am thankful was free because it would have been quite the expense if it was time and materials. The installers x2(1 Tech and 1 Assistant) were there from 8:20AM until 6PM used many different materials (3 types of conduit, ETP, ONT, 500m fiber, microduct, cleaning cloths, fixings - I gave them some isopropyl cause they ran out) Although they were sharing gear with another install just a few houses down so had to wait for stuff etc.

sbiddle

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#805882 26-Apr-2013 12:48

timesplice:
The install itself I am thankful was free because it would have been quite the expense if it was time and materials. The installers x2(1 Tech and 1 Assistant) were there from 8:20AM until 6PM used many different materials (3 types of conduit, ETP, ONT, 500m fiber, microduct, cleaning cloths, fixings - I gave them some isopropyl cause they ran out) Although they were sharing gear with another install just a few houses down so had to wait for stuff etc.

The last (unofficial) figure I heard is still an average of just over $3k for each install. This is additional to the ~$3k per premise just to get the ducting to the premise.

Doing things with fibre isn't cheap..

ajobbins

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#805887 26-Apr-2013 13:11

sbiddle:
The last (unofficial) figure I heard is still an average of just over $3k for each install. This is additional to the ~$3k per premise just to get the ducting to the premise.

Doing things with fibre isn't cheap..

Hmm, at $6k per premise, that means that the $1.8 billion to government pledged will only connect 300,000 homes. And that's not taking into account other infrastructure costs.

Twitter: ajobbins

timesplice

22 posts

Geek

#805900 26-Apr-2013 13:36

ajobbins:
sbiddle:
The last (unofficial) figure I heard is still an average of just over $3k for each install. This is additional to the ~$3k per premise just to get the ducting to the premise.

Doing things with fibre isn't cheap..

Hmm, at $6k per premise, that means that the $1.8 billion to government pledged will only connect 300,000 homes. And that's not taking into account other infrastructure costs.

That is probably how many customers will actually connect to the network anyway during the rollout. Most people are either satisfied with ADSL and cant fathom the need to move to UFB or that not every premises will have UFB available. I know quite a few people that would get connected if they could but do not even appear on the Service Availability Tool /upgrade map.

Some direct targeted marketing would increase the uptake I think.

You also have to keep in mind that Chorus at least has committed its own financial resources to the rollout which was to the tune of $21m I think. In my mind that would cover the cost of basic installs over the next 2 years. After that - the consumer is on their own?

linw

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#805905 26-Apr-2013 13:44

That little ONT fibre pigtail is a real problem with little kids around! Or even someone just dusting. Just checked mine and it is a very fragile thin fibre lead-in.

Glad my ONT is well away from interference under my house.

timesplice

22 posts

Geek

#805918 26-Apr-2013 13:58

linw: That little ONT fibre pigtail is a real problem with little kids around! Or even someone just dusting. Just checked mine and it is a very fragile thin fibre lead-in.

Glad my ONT is well away from interference under my house.

I was even concerned with the way it crosses over the power lead which was putting pressure on it. I got a sticky pad and stuck the power lead back to the wall against the feeding conduit( you can see it in one of the photos) I really wish the ONT could incorporate the pig tail in behind the unit so it was super safe and secure. As it is the ONT is only held on the wall by a plastic clip on either side. A decent knock and its off the wall and possibly dangling by the fiber.

InstallerUFB

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#805937 26-Apr-2013 14:56

LennonNZ: What is the "standard" for the way the fibre should come into the wall mount base for the ONT?

In on the left bottom, around and around and out on the right bottom to the ONT?
Or in on the right bottom, around and around and out on the left bottom and then into the ONT?

I've seen it been done both ways. The ONT base left hand side is slightly larger and has an arrow into it so I presume its designed to come in that way (as the piping can go into a lot easier) and the fibre comes out (to the ONT) on the right hand side..

the Actual prefured method is in through the back in the large hole on the left hand side and then clockwise around to the splice holder then clockwise around and out at the bottom on the right

The second slot in the base on the right is actualy for parking the pigtal plug (but is big enough to put the hybrid cable throught without crushing) the slot on the left can be used for the exit of the pigtail (as in this install) but was originaly intended for a patch cable to the ATA ports

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