New ONT required despite having been installed days ago.

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cassidoofus

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#304120 6-Apr-2023 00:05

Hello.
Before I start, I apologize in advance if this ends up in the wrong topic or if it does not make much sense. If you can see the upload time (12:04-05am), hopefully you can understand.

For some background into this issue, I had a fibre box / ONT installed at my address on Monday by Chorus. After waiting for it to be activated (which in itself took a day for us to find out had to happen, as the Chorus staff did not inform us of this), I contacted Spark about placing an order for a fibre plan, as it states on their website that they will organize an installation date for the ONT. After about an entire day of messaging them, they placed an order for the fibre plan and a new modem, as the one we have now is fibre-compatible but cannot handle speeds higher than 100mbps. That was yesterday.

Today I contacted them requesting that that order be canceled as I intend to go to our local Spark store tomorrow and purchase a new modem myself. However while doing this, I was informed by the customer service rep I was (and currently am still, their response times are certainly on the slower side. It's been 3 hours now) talking to that "there are no suitable ports available to activate the fibre connection". I have absolutely no idea what this means, and they have stated that I now need another ONT installed. I do not understand why, as this current one is only a few days old, and appears to be entirely functional.

This is all the information I can provide, as I currently have no idea what is/has happened and why. Can somebody please help me understand this?

antoniosk

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#3059591 6-Apr-2023 06:31

You don’t mention what sort of consumer plan you’ve ordered but I’m guessing it’s a gig unlimited plan, which are the most common.

while that service is being activated - and it sounds like it hasn’t been done correctly yet - if you try to cancel the original order and start again, you’ll get caught up. As for as the systems know, the first service has been provisioned to port 1 on the ONT and is reserved for gig fibre. Until this is released/cancelled properly etc, every subsequent activity will look like a second connection, and these are limited to 100mbps.

really the best thing to do is go back to spark, go straight through to the technology team and ask them to investigate and activate the service correctly

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Antoniosk

CYaBro

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#3059599 6-Apr-2023 07:03

Why did Chorus install an ONT in the first place?
Had you already contacted Spark originally?

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Dynamic

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#3059601 6-Apr-2023 07:09

This does sound underwhelming.

Once an ONT is physically installed, Chorus needs to complete some paperwork before it is available for use by Spark or any other ISP. Sometimes this is slow to be done. Occasionally this is not completed correctly. Sometimes the address we use does not completely match up with the address in the Chorus database. As an example, our address is 270 x Road, but in the Chorus system it is 264 x Road, which lead to a lot of frustration when we were trying to connect.

Does your ONT have a serial number on it that you can quote to Spark? It makes things so much simpler if you can quote the S/N, though I think only the older model ONTs have this. https://www.chorus.co.nz/q

@antoniosk you can now have gig connections on multiple ONT ports. The original limitation of gig on the first and only 100mbps on the rest has been removed relatively recently. We have two gigabit connections on an original ONT.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

antoniosk

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#3059608 6-Apr-2023 07:32

Dynamic:

@antoniosk you can now have gig connections on multiple ONT ports. The original limitation of gig on the first and only 100mbps on the rest has been removed relatively recently. We have two gigabit connections on an original ONT.

Oh right thanks for the correction - I didnt realise that was an option now!

It's still gig backhaul though, so you'd never get 2gbps concurrently?

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cassidoofus

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#3059609 6-Apr-2023 07:38

antoniosk:
You don’t mention what sort of consumer plan you’ve ordered but I’m guessing it’s a gig unlimited plan, which are the most common.

while that service is being activated - and it sounds like it hasn’t been done correctly yet - if you try to cancel the original order and start again, you’ll get caught up. As for as the systems know, the first service has been provisioned to port 1 on the ONT and is reserved for gig fibre. Until this is released/cancelled properly etc, every subsequent activity will look like a second connection, and these are limited to 100mbps.

really the best thing to do is go back to spark, go straight through to the technology team and ask them to investigate and activate the service correctly

The plan I ordered is the spark fibre max, which I think is 900/500mbps.

I see, except I'd only tried to actively cancel the order yesterday, and the customer service rep stated that on the order I was trying to cancel it stated that there are no suitable ports. Since my post (so about 12:30am) they stated that they're going to take the issue to their fibre team to investigate in order to try to fix it because it's a new box. Hopefully they're able to do something about it, as neither of us in the household are willing to pay for a new ONT, haha.

cassidoofus

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#3059611 6-Apr-2023 07:45

Dynamic:
This does sound underwhelming.

Once an ONT is physically installed, Chorus needs to complete some paperwork before it is available for use by Spark or any other ISP. Sometimes this is slow to be done. Occasionally this is not completed correctly. Sometimes the address we use does not completely match up with the address in the Chorus database. As an example, our address is 270 x Road, but in the Chorus system it is 264 x Road, which lead to a lot of frustration when we were trying to connect.

Does your ONT have a serial number on it that you can quote to Spark? It makes things so much simpler if you can quote the S/N, though I think only the older model ONTs have this. https://www.chorus.co.nz/q

As far as I know, I believe it has been done correctly (my address comes up as fibre-installed on the Chorus website, at the very least) and I'm not sure if the ONT has a serial number on it as I am currently not home, but I am using the model 400 if that can give you an idea.

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cassidoofus

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#3059612 6-Apr-2023 07:48

CYaBro: Why did Chorus install an ONT in the first place?
Had you already contacted Spark originally?

I went straight through Chorus to have fibre installed. My plan was to have it installed and then go to Spark to change my plan. First part was smooth sailing, now we're stuck on the second, haha.

(Apologies if I'm not replying right, I would've done this in one message if I knew how)

Dynamic

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#3059629 6-Apr-2023 07:56

antoniosk:

It's still gig backhaul though, so you'd never get 2gbps concurrently?

I've been meaning to test this, though have not made the time to do so. So as not to derail the OP's thread, I've asked the questions here: The tech and speeds behind the ONT (geekzone.co.nz)

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

cyril7

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#3059676 6-Apr-2023 09:25

Hi as mentioned in the thread Dynamic started, GPON is 2.5Gb/s down stream and 1.25Gb/s up so yes technically you can achieve full GigE on both ports, lots of other factors considered.

Cyril

robjg63

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#3059709 6-Apr-2023 10:56

cassidoofus:

CYaBro: Why did Chorus install an ONT in the first place?
Had you already contacted Spark originally?

I went straight through Chorus to have fibre installed. My plan was to have it installed and then go to Spark to change my plan. First part was smooth sailing, now we're stuck on the second, haha.

(Apologies if I'm not replying right, I would've done this in one message if I knew how)

So you have fibre in your area (recently or ages ago) and didnt have Fibre installed to your home.

Chorus sometimes chase up properties that havent moved to fibre so that they can install the gear on the expectation that they will want fibre at some stage. Or when they roll out Fibre to new areas they sometimes door knock to roll the cabling out while they are in the area. So you agreed to this and have the ONT and fibre cable installed now.

The fibre wont be 'active' (or connected to the network), but the gear is installed.

Spark would still need to activate/provision your connection (ie get Chorus to physically connect you to the network).

You tried to get fibre with Spark who say you need to get the ONT installed first. Spark dont have the details from Chorus yet that the fibre and ONT have been physically installed.

Perhaps you were a bit quick - but not your fault.

You cancelled the install because you said you were going to buy a router - that probably wasnt what you wanted to do.

Hmm - Looks like a mess to be honest.

If you hadn't cancelled I would imagine Spark would have found out you do have a physical install - especially if you had given them the ONT serial number etc.

As to the "there are no suitable ports available to activate the fibre connection" comment. I guess you can have the fibre cabling/ONT installed. But when the actual connection gets activated/provisoned (at Sparks request in this case), they need to hook the network up to your particular connection. This might indicate that their isnt a network connection available. I don't know how common this is or how long you might have to wait for it to become available. I gather the ISP (Spark) should be able to give some estimate.

At this stage, do you actually have a request for Fibre connection with Spark or is it cancelled?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

cassidoofus

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#3059737 6-Apr-2023 12:30

At this point, I do have an order with Spark. I've been down to the local Spark store earlier and somebody's now attempting to fix the sufficient port issue. They said it would be ready by this afternoon, thankfully.
Edit: While typing this, I recieved a call from the Spark rep helping me, and turns out our address WAS actually wrong, stating 60 x street rather than 60A x street, and because 60 has a fibre connection, that could've been the problem.

Thank you to everyone who responded to this thread, I've learnt a fair bit from this and everyones responses are very much appreciated.

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robjg63

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#3059744 6-Apr-2023 12:50

Hope you get sorted and can enjoy a high fibre easter!

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler