Orcon claiming GOVERNMENT POLICY not to install UFB in shared driveway sites

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon claiming GOVERNMENT POLICY not to install UFB in shared driveway sites

geordienz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#130685 24-Sep-2013 10:26

After switching to Orcon last year based upon their promise of imminent UFB installation, I was asked by them to get a letter of authorisation from my landlord, which I duly did. They now tell me that they cannot install as I share a driveway (which they knew I had from day one).

I replied: a) What does it matter, as there is a conduit there and therefore shared driveway doesn't affect anything?
b) Even if it did and for some reason digging was required, if I got agreement from other households then there should be no problem

Orcon response: None of that matters. NZ Government is dictating no UFB installation down shared driveways at this time, regardless of whether digging is required or not, so our hands are tied.

True or bull?

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#901738 24-Sep-2013 10:30

I know multiple people with shared driveways who've had UFB installed. There's no government policy flat out disallowing it. Here's the Chorus page about it. I don't know what the policies are around subsidies though, perhaps it's a case of the installation not being subsidised, and thus you'd be up for full install cost.. unsure.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#901739 24-Sep-2013 10:31

A shared driveway makes a big difference. If you want to know further I'd suggest reading the documentation regarding shared driveways.

geordienz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#901744 24-Sep-2013 10:35

sbiddle: A shared driveway makes a big difference. If you want to know further I'd suggest reading the documentation regarding shared driveways.

Thanks. Where would I find that?

geordienz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#901819 24-Sep-2013 11:55

Just spoke with Chorus and they put me onto Ultrafast Fibre, who are the contractors for my area. They claim it WAS official government policy up until about a month ago, but now it isn't (hmmm....).
Anyways, they said I'm now good to go and just have to contact Orcon again.
Now, Orcon state their usual "fair data usage" policy will apply. This shouldn't really concern me as I normally average 80-100gb a month, but the questions that now arise are:-

Who decides what "fair data usage" is?
Would it really matter a jot with fibre if every household racked up their usage, or is there a bottleneck somewhere?

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#901835 24-Sep-2013 12:13

geordienz:
1. Who decides what "fair data usage" is?
2. Would it really matter a jot with fibre if every household racked up their usage, or is there a bottleneck somewhere?

1. Orcon decide what fair usage is, in regards to their policy. As is the case for any ISP with such a policy, the specific levels are up to them. I believe Fire Engine has commented a few times on here, though, that Orcon are yet to pull anyone up on fair usage, despite some users exceeding 1TB a month regularly.

2. It's not so much around the usage, as around the available bandwidth. Yes, it would matter if everyone was maxing out throughput on UFB at the same time, as there may not be enough backhaul capacity to service this. However, most major ISPs (Orcon included I'm fairly sure) can cope quite well with this, because not all users are maxing out their connection at any time.

quentinreade

351 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

2degrees

#901844 24-Sep-2013 12:20

Hi Georgie,
Please PM me details and we can look into getting this rolling. Sorry for the delays - driveways/ right of ways/ multi tenant dwellings have been difficult in the past, but the industry is getting better at consents and getting people hooked up.
As to fair use, we haven't had to use this yet - and the majority of new sign ups are going for the unlimited plan and many are using more than 1TB a month. And we more than OK with that :)
On any network, there will be congestion at times, but we optimise streaming and web traffic, and you should only see P2P traffic slow in the evenings.
Hope that helps, one of the fibre guys can go into far more detail.
Cheers.

Comms chap

2degrees

geordienz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#901901 24-Sep-2013 13:48

quentinreade: Hi Georgie,
Please PM me details and we can look into getting this rolling. Sorry for the delays - driveways/ right of ways/ multi tenant dwellings have been difficult in the past, but the industry is getting better at consents and getting people hooked up.
As to fair use, we haven't had to use this yet - and the majority of new sign ups are going for the unlimited plan and many are using more than 1TB a month. And we more than OK with that :)
On any network, there will be congestion at times, but we optimise streaming and web traffic, and you should only see P2P traffic slow in the evenings.
Hope that helps, one of the fibre guys can go into far more detail.
Cheers.

Hi Quentin,

Good to see that someone is on the ball with regard to good service by having a presence on a forum like this.
Pity the same cannot be said of your helpdesk/marketing people, who basically gave me the runaround in terms of my trying to get a UFB service, including not having a callback from a manager when I specifically requested one (and being assured it would happen), in order to complain about the shared driveways issue.

I'm happy to say I have since been in touch with Orcon and lodged my order. If I can make one observation - if I really must be connected to Mumbai (or wherever), could Orcon try and ensure their operators don't actually sound as if they're reading everything from a screen verbatim, then appear totally flummoxed by a simple question like "Why is there a fair usage policy with fibre?". They should really have better knowledge of what they're trying to sell or maintain - or at least offer to pass me to someone who knows.

And . . . . . who the heck's Georgie? :)

Cheers,

geordienz

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

quentinreade

351 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

2degrees

#901918 24-Sep-2013 14:09

geordienz:
quentinreade: Hi Georgie,
Please PM me details and we can look into getting this rolling. Sorry for the delays - driveways/ right of ways/ multi tenant dwellings have been difficult in the past, but the industry is getting better at consents and getting people hooked up.
As to fair use, we haven't had to use this yet - and the majority of new sign ups are going for the unlimited plan and many are using more than 1TB a month. And we more than OK with that :)
On any network, there will be congestion at times, but we optimise streaming and web traffic, and you should only see P2P traffic slow in the evenings.
Hope that helps, one of the fibre guys can go into far more detail.
Cheers.

Hi Quentin,

Good to see that someone is on the ball with regard to good service by having a presence on a forum like this.
Pity the same cannot be said of your helpdesk/marketing people, who basically gave me the runaround in terms of my trying to get a UFB service, including not having a callback from a manager when I specifically requested one (and being assured it would happen), in order to complain about the shared driveways issue.

I'm happy to say I have since been in touch with Orcon and lodged my order. If I can make one observation - if I really must be connected to Mumbai (or wherever), could Orcon try and ensure their operators don't actually sound as if they're reading everything from a screen verbatim, then appear totally flummoxed by a simple question like "Why is there a fair usage policy with fibre?". They should really have better knowledge of what they're trying to sell or maintain - or at least offer to pass me to someone who knows.

And . . . . . who the heck's Georgie? :)

Cheers,

geordienz

Sorry Geordienz/georgie - the danger of replying on a phone - auto correct ;)
The fibre team is in Auckland - around the corner from me. But I'll pass your feedback on - and trust your install and fibre experience will be awesome from here in!
Sing out if you need a hand with anything.
Best, Quentin

Comms chap

2degrees

geordienz

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#901924 24-Sep-2013 14:17

quentinreade:
geordienz:
quentinreade: Hi Georgie,
Please PM me details and we can look into getting this rolling. Sorry for the delays - driveways/ right of ways/ multi tenant dwellings have been difficult in the past, but the industry is getting better at consents and getting people hooked up.
As to fair use, we haven't had to use this yet - and the majority of new sign ups are going for the unlimited plan and many are using more than 1TB a month. And we more than OK with that :)
On any network, there will be congestion at times, but we optimise streaming and web traffic, and you should only see P2P traffic slow in the evenings.
Hope that helps, one of the fibre guys can go into far more detail.
Cheers.

Hi Quentin,

Good to see that someone is on the ball with regard to good service by having a presence on a forum like this.
Pity the same cannot be said of your helpdesk/marketing people, who basically gave me the runaround in terms of my trying to get a UFB service, including not having a callback from a manager when I specifically requested one (and being assured it would happen), in order to complain about the shared driveways issue.

I'm happy to say I have since been in touch with Orcon and lodged my order. If I can make one observation - if I really must be connected to Mumbai (or wherever), could Orcon try and ensure their operators don't actually sound as if they're reading everything from a screen verbatim, then appear totally flummoxed by a simple question like "Why is there a fair usage policy with fibre?". They should really have better knowledge of what they're trying to sell or maintain - or at least offer to pass me to someone who knows.

And . . . . . who the heck's Georgie? :)

Cheers,

geordienz

Sorry Geordienz/georgie - the danger of replying on a phone - auto correct ;)
The fibre team is in Auckland - around the corner from me. But I'll pass your feedback on - and trust your install and fibre experience will be awesome from here in!
Sing out if you need a hand with anything.
Best, Quentin

Thanks Quentin.
Oh, almost forgot (while I'm in mild rant mode)- it would have been good to have had a call from Orcon - and not me having to initiate contact - whenever Ultrafast decided that shared driveways were no longer an issue, especially as it would/should have been on my records that I wanted UFB asap.

Nebbie

458 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#901986 24-Sep-2013 16:32

As UFB is still new MDU's and Shared Driveways are treated very differently. Untill recently if there was MDU or Shared driveway Chours said NO to installs... Until recently.

However as this process is still new there's going to be delays and all sorts of issues until the process is cleared up then for everyone else its a smoother process.

I'm still waiting for UFB myself I can't get it because of the MDU problem and the larger the MDU there's a higher chance that UFB wont be available because of someone hasn't singed the "right of way" and I wont benefit (much) from VDSL even though I could though a stone and hit the exchange.

Lucky you can get UFB.... :) jealous

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