Vector Fibre

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AidanS

458 posts

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#106970 3-Aug-2012 18:02

Okay, so I want a faster internet connection, as does any other technology enthusiast in New Zealand.

I am currently with Vodafone with their "Red Network", which isn't too bad, with 14mbps down, 1mbps up and an average 25ms ping to local Auckland servers. However to do things like live stream, and upload youtube, a 2.5mbps upload is pretty essential (at least very useful).

After doing some research I've found that I am out of zone for VDSL, by about 2 houses (and I did a line check and I have 13db, so either way I can't get VDSL). Then I checked when I'm expected to get Fibre broadband as rolled out by Chorus.

Turns out, my street gets in December this year... except for a few houses. I am about 3 houses away from that. Thus meaning I have to wait till 2014+ to get Fibre (at least on Chorus's network).

I've now come down to my final option. And that is Vector's network. It turns out I am currently in their Fibre network. I have exchanged several emails with them however they have told me they do not deal with customers directly and that they only wholesale their network out to other ISP's. I've been trying to figure out which ISPs exactly (if any) are currently offering services under Vector's network.

I have emailed them back, however I am getting rather mixed responses from them, so I am asking the community here, if anyone has experience with Vector's fibre network. Either residential, or business. And if they know any ISP's which are offering services under their network.

OR if anybody knows of a way for me to get a faster upload, without getting two connections, or paying $250+/month.

(PS I live in Glenfield, Auckland).

Thanks in advanced,
Aidan

lucky015

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#667196 3-Aug-2012 19:30

If I remember correctly, Vodafone support Annex M however it did appear to be artificially limited or not entirely supported by the equipment leaving it less effective, If your current equipment supports it I would suggest giving it a try.

If you don't get a particular speed boost from Annex M another option could be to change ISP to one that does support it properly, Since changing to Slingshot from Vodafone I have been able to get a Sync of 2Mbps up under Annex M rather than the 1.2 I was getting on Vodafone.

If you need any help or need to borrow equipment that supports Annex M to test I have a few devices that support it and live in Glenfield myself so feel free to flick me a PM.

lucky015

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#667197 3-Aug-2012 19:35

Also depending on the condition of your internal house wiring you may actually be able to clean it up enough to get within the Attenuation threshold but that is a rather slim possibility unless your internal wiring is in particularly bad condition you have a lot of jackpoints.

I'm in a similar situation myself, I would also suggest that depending on your location you may find that you can actually get UFB in December but all you can do is wait and see.

nickb800

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#667208 3-Aug-2012 19:51

Afaik Vector doesnt do residential fibre, so you wont get a sub-$250 per month connection over their network.

Xtreme or Unleash could probably give you a quote, but it would likely be more like $500 per month and $1000s to setup.

Maybe have a look at Wireless ISPs for a better upload, do you have line of sight to the Sky tower?

Zeon

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#667211 3-Aug-2012 20:03

To be honest I would at least try and get a pre-qual with someone like Unleash for VDSL2. At 13dB you *may* just be able to get it and its by far the most cost effective. Also if you are only 3 houses outside of the fibre area they may also be able to provide to you, even if you have to pay them $1000-$3000 extra for the install its a cheaper alternative to Vector fibre which would probably be a $2000 install on 3 year contract + minimum $500 a month.

Non UFB fibre is really expensive.

Wireless is another option if you need faster upload but is also expensive. The other option is copper based HSNS which seems to be quite cheap these days:
http://www.hd.net.nz/internet-services/hsns.html

You can get anywhere up to 10mbps without needing fibre installed.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

AidanS

458 posts

Ultimate Geek

#667212 3-Aug-2012 20:07

lucky015: If I remember correctly, Vodafone support Annex M however it did appear to be artificially limited or not entirely supported by the equipment leaving it less effective, If your current equipment supports it I would suggest giving it a try.

If you don't get a particular speed boost from Annex M another option could be to change ISP to one that does support it properly, Since changing to Slingshot from Vodafone I have been able to get a Sync of 2Mbps up under Annex M rather than the 1.2 I was getting on Vodafone.

If you need any help or need to borrow equipment that supports Annex M to test I have a few devices that support it and live in Glenfield myself so feel free to flick me a PM.

Thanks for this info. I'm currently locked into Vodaofne until January 2013 anyway however I'd be willing to learn about this Annex M, is it just a different modem? I hope I can get fibre in December, seems a bit odd that 90% of Glenfield get it, just they leave small gaps. I may consider re-wiring my phone lines anyway, seen as it is most likely gonna help my current connection by a little bit. Living in a 50 year old house, with 50 year old wiring, probably could do with an upgrade :).

Also to the person below, who was talking about business plans, that's what I was thinking, just wondering if there was anyway possible to get cheaper plans. It seems a bit odd that they don't offer residential internet seen as they have quite a decent network already.

Cheers,
Aidan

AidanS

458 posts

Ultimate Geek

#667215 3-Aug-2012 20:11

Zeon: To be honest I would at least try and get a pre-qual with someone like Unleash for VDSL2. At 13dB you *may* just be able to get it and its by far the most cost effective. Also if you are only 3 houses outside of the fibre area they may also be able to provide to you, even if you have to pay them $1000-$3000 extra for the install its a cheaper alternative to Vector fibre which would probably be a $2000 install on 3 year contract + minimum $500 a month.

Non UFB fibre is really expensive.

Wireless is another option if you need faster upload but is also expensive. The other option is copper based HSNS which seems to be quite cheap these days:
http://www.hd.net.nz/internet-services/hsns.html

You can get anywhere up to 10mbps without needing fibre installed.

The person I spoke with at Snap.co.nz, said that Chorus only allow VDSL connections with a <10.8 DB, though I may try re-wire my connection. As I do have a daisy chain set-up going. Is there any way for me to check my own connection interference without having to ask an ISP? I am using the newest, free wireless modem from Vodafone. (Kind of off-topic, but I'm sure it's a simple task to do).

Cheers,
Aidan

lucky015

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#667216 3-Aug-2012 20:18

CoolAs101:
lucky015: If I remember correctly, Vodafone support Annex M however it did appear to be artificially limited or not entirely supported by the equipment leaving it less effective, If your current equipment supports it I would suggest giving it a try.

If you don't get a particular speed boost from Annex M another option could be to change ISP to one that does support it properly, Since changing to Slingshot from Vodafone I have been able to get a Sync of 2Mbps up under Annex M rather than the 1.2 I was getting on Vodafone.

If you need any help or need to borrow equipment that supports Annex M to test I have a few devices that support it and live in Glenfield myself so feel free to flick me a PM.

Thanks for this info. I'm currently locked into Vodaofne until January 2013 anyway however I'd be willing to learn about this Annex M, is it just a different modem? I hope I can get fibre in December, seems a bit odd that 90% of Glenfield get it, just they leave small gaps. I may consider re-wiring my phone lines anyway, seen as it is most likely gonna help my current connection by a little bit. Living in a 50 year old house, with 50 year old wiring, probably could do with an upgrade :).

Also to the person below, who was talking about business plans, that's what I was thinking, just wondering if there was anyway possible to get cheaper plans. It seems a bit odd that they don't offer residential internet seen as they have quite a decent network already.

Cheers,
Aidan

Annex M is simply a variant of ADSL2+ which sacrifices a portion of the Download speed for Upload.

Some equipment supports it however a lot doesn't, Depending on what Modem you are currently using you may find it already supports it and is a simple switch.

Being with Vodafone however I am unsure of how much you would actually benefit from it as I don't think it is entirely supported by them.

Fibre providers don't tend to particularly go out of their way for residential installs as it costs them a considerable amount of time and effort to setup for a minimal profit, Business customers on the other hand are willing to pay a premium for a vital service as well as supporting a lot of it themselves.

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AidanS

458 posts

Ultimate Geek

#667221 3-Aug-2012 20:24

Oh okay. I guess I may as well leave the Annex M for now, thank you for the offer though. Also to whom said I might be able to get them to extend the Fibre coverage a few houses to my house, I spoke to a Chorus support person, and they assured me that, what I suggested would not be possible. Simply due to the fact, they have to follow the Crown Fibre regulations.

They may change their minds, and decide to do my house in the end, though I guess I just have to wait. I'll take a look into wireless, though I definitely like the Ping I get with Wired.

Thank you for all the help and suggestions,

Aidan

Zeon

3916 posts

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#667232 3-Aug-2012 20:51

CoolAs101:
Zeon: To be honest I would at least try and get a pre-qual with someone like Unleash for VDSL2. At 13dB you *may* just be able to get it and its by far the most cost effective. Also if you are only 3 houses outside of the fibre area they may also be able to provide to you, even if you have to pay them $1000-$3000 extra for the install its a cheaper alternative to Vector fibre which would probably be a $2000 install on 3 year contract + minimum $500 a month.

Non UFB fibre is really expensive.

Wireless is another option if you need faster upload but is also expensive. The other option is copper based HSNS which seems to be quite cheap these days:
http://www.hd.net.nz/internet-services/hsns.html

You can get anywhere up to 10mbps without needing fibre installed.

The person I spoke with at Snap.co.nz, said that Chorus only allow VDSL connections with a <10.8 DB, though I may try re-wire my connection. As I do have a daisy chain set-up going. Is there any way for me to check my own connection interference without having to ask an ISP? I am using the newest, free wireless modem from Vodafone. (Kind of off-topic, but I'm sure it's a simple task to do).

Cheers,
Aidan

As far as I know and have heard Chorus will accept up to 12dB. This is from the outside of your house so I strongly suggest you get a proper Chorus pre qualification via a VDSL2 ISP as you may find you sneek in, especially with old house wiring like you have.

BTW wireless doesn't have to have a high ping, it will often be less than DSL.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#667562 4-Aug-2012 18:33

Are you friendly with anyone down your street that will can get VDSL? You will get enough bandwidth on a VDSL connection to share with two houses. At the house that can get VDSL simply put the modem and a router that can do good QoS and traffic monitoring so that you get a fair share each and then do a point-to-point wireless link with a couple of NanoStation Loco M5's (around $120 each and are good for atleast 1km providing you have good line of sight) and you will be humming away. The point-to-point link will easily support the full speed VDSL can offer so it will be like the connection is in your house.
If you aren't capable of installing the wireless yourself ask around your local cabling firms for who can do the work for you. To give you an idea of cost the last short point-to-point link I did with loco M5's was around $600 after adding the time and materials to install it.

Publius

276 posts

Ultimate Geek

#667578 4-Aug-2012 19:16

OP, i looked into getting connected to vector fibre early last year for a business with vector fibre going past in the street. Got a quote from Orcon (reselling vector fibre) for $1500/mth for the cheapest service possible. Salesman was quite annoyed too because it was a ridiculous price so never going to happen. He tried to sell me HSNS instead (business grade synchronous dsl), but we made do with our standard dsl.

I can never understand the thinking of some of these service companies like vector with fibre and same with gas -- if the install isn't subsidised you're never going to get a customer so you're never going to get a long term revenue stream from them.

AidanS

458 posts

Ultimate Geek

#667583 4-Aug-2012 19:28

That wireless idea is deficiently a creative one, and I'll take a a deeper look into it.

And thank you for providing some information with the Vector fibre, the person that is above me.

-Aidan