Chorus UFB network upgrade

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mrgsm021

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#96452 27-Jan-2012 17:43

Found a drop-in letter in the letterbox today from Chorus that Visionstream is about to carry out roadside fibre cabinets and fibre cable installations in my neighborhood (Botany Downs/East Tamaki, Auckland).

According to the letter the work will start as soon as Auckland Anniversary day (30/01) and is scheduled to be completed around mid March.

Exciting!!!

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#574220 27-Jan-2012 20:06

lucky bugger!

Zeon

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#574224 27-Jan-2012 20:44

Yea the East Tamaki business association (GETBA) lobbied hard to get fibre installed in their area first.

However I spoke to Unleash about this a week or so ago and they don't expect any GPON services to be available for resale until June....

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kiwi_64

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#574225 27-Jan-2012 20:46

They're busy doing my street at the moment (Churton Park, Wellington)... will be interested to see how the pricing works out though

mrgsm021

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#574229 27-Jan-2012 21:13

At least the process has started, as far as the infrastructure goes.

Next up, internal house wiring, this is the part that could get expensive....

Would need at least cat5 throughout the house with star wiring configuration.

Hopefully when they blow the fibre from my property boundary all the way to the house they can use the existing ducting/conduit rather than having to install new ones.

Anyone has any idea what criteria they use to determine whether or not new ducting is required?

Beccara

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#574230 27-Jan-2012 21:15

Ownership is the big one I think

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Oblivian

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#574231 27-Jan-2012 21:28

Chrous approved guides here..

www.chorus.co.nz/wiring-for-fibre

Our new 'dirt' in Kaiapoi is going to be Fibre only. Hopefully more than WxC doing it when we move in.

Elpie

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#574597 29-Jan-2012 13:13

Had the same letter and same timeframe in my area of Palmerston North too. I'm looking forward to seeing what eventuates but am not holding my breath. My street was upgraded for VDSL too. It stops at my next-door neighbours and starts again three houses on the other side, leaving me in a dead spot with no access.

Ironic that most of my street has VDSL when all but two houses are occupied by elderly people. You guessed it - the two houses that aren't occupied by elderly folk don't have the opportunity to use VDSL :-(

Last time the powers that be decided to improve internet access for my area we got moved off a cabinet that was 3km away and onto the central Palmerston North cabinet which is 8km away. So, I'm not going to get excited about the UFB roll-out just yet.

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Behodar

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#574616 29-Jan-2012 14:07

Elpie: Had the same letter and same timeframe in my area of Palmerston North too. I'm looking forward to seeing what eventuates but am not holding my breath. My street was upgraded for VDSL too. It stops at my next-door neighbours and starts again three houses on the other side, leaving me in a dead spot with no access.

Ironic that most of my street has VDSL when all but two houses are occupied by elderly people. You guessed it - the two houses that aren't occupied by elderly folk don't have the opportunity to use VDSL :-(

It's the same sort of thing where I live. If I look on the Chorus maps then there's VDSL green everywhere except for about 10 houses. One of those houses is me, one is an HD video editor, and one is a network technician. All of us want more bandwidth but nobody seems to want to supply it!

sbiddle

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#574639 29-Jan-2012 15:31

Elpie: Had the same letter and same timeframe in my area of Palmerston North too. I'm looking forward to seeing what eventuates but am not holding my breath. My street was upgraded for VDSL too. It stops at my next-door neighbours and starts again three houses on the other side, leaving me in a dead spot with no access.

Ironic that most of my street has VDSL when all but two houses are occupied by elderly people. You guessed it - the two houses that aren't occupied by elderly folk don't have the opportunity to use VDSL :-(

Last time the powers that be decided to improve internet access for my area we got moved off a cabinet that was 3km away and onto the central Palmerston North cabinet which is 8km away. So, I'm not going to get excited about the UFB roll-out just yet.

Have you actually had an ISP run a Chorus prequalification on your address to see if you can get VDSL2? The coverage maps are a good guide, but can't be relied on 100%

Ragnor

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#574644 29-Jan-2012 15:52

Elpie:

Last time the powers that be decided to improve internet access for my area we got moved off a cabinet that was 3km away and onto the central Palmerston North cabinet which is 8km away. So, I'm not going to get excited about the UFB roll-out just yet.

Distance effectively doesn't matter with fibre optics compared to copper, so I would be looking forward to it in your situation.

gmball

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#574649 29-Jan-2012 16:08

I'm in Botany also. My concern with fibre is that it's all very well having faster speeds but they need to come with larger data caps which I suspect they won't....

mrgsm021

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#574653 29-Jan-2012 16:20

gmball: I'm in Botany also. My concern with fibre is that it's all very well having faster speeds but they need to come with larger data caps which I suspect they won't....

I guess it is up to the different ISPs to come up with plans/packages, it's still early days I think.

mrgsm021

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#574655 29-Jan-2012 16:23

I am pretty sure the cabinet I am connected to is fibre fed (probably about 200m away), does that mean I will still be running off the same cabinet once I am on fibre or does Chorus build a new fibre cabinet?

I'd make sense to use the existing cabinet wouldn't it rather than the extra cost of building a new cabinet?

sbiddle

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#574659 29-Jan-2012 16:36

mrgsm021: I am pretty sure the cabinet I am connected to is fibre fed (probably about 200m away), does that mean I will still be running off the same cabinet once I am on fibre or does Chorus build a new fibre cabinet?

I'd make sense to use the existing cabinet wouldn't it rather than the extra cost of building a new cabinet?

In most cases you'll see a small cabinet next to the existing whisper cabinet. Telecom already ran extra fibre for future FTTH backhaul when they deployed the cabinets so there is no requirement for this, just the conduit or overhead cabling to the homes.

My understanding is that the whisper cabinets could be used, but Telecom/Chorus were required to allocate space in these cabinets for other providers to install their own DSLAM's/ISAM's. This space is unused since no other providers have installed equipment in them, but can't be used for this reason.

antoniosk

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#574660 29-Jan-2012 16:38

mrgsm021: At least the process has started, as far as the infrastructure goes.

Next up, internal house wiring, this is the part that could get expensive....

Would need at least cat5 throughout the house with star wiring configuration.

Hopefully when they blow the fibre from my property boundary all the way to the house they can use the existing ducting/conduit rather than having to install new ones.

Anyone has any idea what criteria they use to determine whether or not new ducting is required?

Whatever you do, make sure you get in writing what is going to happen. Chorus is not obligated to move heaven and earth to get fibre to people - only to spend the least amount of money possible to get you connected. For most people this translates to the corner of the house closest to junctioning point in the street.

The fly in this ointment is that the Retail Service Provider and you determine what will be done - you can't ask chorus for extra things, as they wont take payments directly, and they wont do the work on your behalf and just send the bill back to the RSP, because no commercial company will accept that type of risk.

Happy fibreing!

________

Antoniosk

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