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avenison
join:2009-12-10
90121

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avenison

Member

Sudbury ON - FibreOP FTTH - job fair Thursday 6pm

I had not heard about Bell Aliant's planned FTTH rollout for Greater Sudbury back when it was announced, but in the paper the other day there was this ad:




After a bit of searching it seems they hoped to have the service running by this July, hopefully this means they're on track. If anyone attends the job fair or whatever it is later today, be sure let us know any info regarding coverage areas, plans, etc. as there is so far nothing on bell's website for Ontario.

Edit: Looks like they have a dedicated website set up at »fibreop.ca - you can sign up to be notified when it's available, but there are no real details posted presently.

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy

Premium Member

Drop down the city list @ Fibreop.ca and you'll see where its going to be.

Field Service Reps aka Door to Door Sales Reps. Tough position to be in these days, but lots of profit in it if you can sell.

avenison
join:2009-12-10
90121

avenison

Member

The dropdown list is far from conclusive imho, since it contains every generalized area in the area. While that's a starting place it does not tell us whether, for example, the donovan is considered part of downtown. There's also the question of when they'll start offering the service - they could be lining up salespeople a year in advance.

I was hoping to make it to the session myself just to see what I could find out, but I won't be able to. =\

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy to avenison

Premium Member

to avenison
As far as the "Old City of Sudbury" is concerned...I believe all of the bases are covered, Downtown Sudbury covers that area I believe as there is no CO for the Donovan specifically and that its all fed from downtown @ 200 Brady for that area, as well as a CO on Rockwood for the South end, and a CO on Lasalle that covers new Sudbury...

So, at some point they'll get to your area...but who knows when...but I'm sure they'll be covering the whole area.

habskilla
join:2005-09-19
Moncton, NB

habskilla

Member

If the roll out is anything like we have in Atlantic Canada, you'll see these boxes popping up.

»i1238.photobucket.com/al ··· e032.jpg

FibreOp will be offered very soon after once you see that box.

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy

Premium Member

said by habskilla:

If the roll out is anything like we have in Atlantic Canada, you'll see these boxes popping up.

»i1238.photobucket.com/al ··· e032.jpg

FibreOp will be offered very soon after once you see that box.

Good to know. I haven't seen any Bell trucks in my neighbourhood specifically but I'll be on the lookout for these boxes, I'm going to guess it'll be by xmas as that would only make sense.

avenison
join:2009-12-10
90121

avenison to habskilla

Member

to habskilla
Thanks for the pic habskilla. Any idea what's in the box? It appears there's only one line (or group of lines) coming down into it from the pole, and one line/group coming out the bottom.

@nitzguy, that's why I wondered. If they're really planning to do the entire area then there are plenty of ways they could "wire" it. They could use the existing COs as a starting point, but they could just as well lay all of it from the Brady St building. Getting back to the list, it did occur to me that it could be divided by CO, but based on the entries for the Valley that may not be the case. Val Caron does have it's own CO (1741 Main W), but afaik Val Therese and Hanmer (which are separate in the dropdown list) are both served from the Hanmer CO at 4522 Dennie. There is however an unsigned building on Jeanne D'arc (»maps.google.ca/maps?q=46 ··· 33760679) which may or may not be relevant.

habskilla
join:2005-09-19
Moncton, NB

habskilla

Member

It's a neighbourhood connection box. The wire coming out the bottom is just a ground wire.
habskilla

habskilla to avenison

Member

to avenison
Here are more FibreOp porn for you

Line splicing. Using the very last step in the process
»s1238.photobucket.com/al ··· 0199.mp4

My original setup. It has changed quite a bit since this pic
»i1238.photobucket.com/al ··· e045.jpg

Here is my pic of of my current setup. The BellAliant router replaced with the terrific Asus RT-N56U
»i1238.photobucket.com/al ··· r004.jpg

An example of upload speed
»i1238.photobucket.com/al ··· -1-1.png

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy to avenison

Premium Member

to avenison
said by avenison:

Thanks for the pic habskilla. Any idea what's in the box? It appears there's only one line (or group of lines) coming down into it from the pole, and one line/group coming out the bottom.

@nitzguy, that's why I wondered. If they're really planning to do the entire area then there are plenty of ways they could "wire" it. They could use the existing COs as a starting point, but they could just as well lay all of it from the Brady St building. Getting back to the list, it did occur to me that it could be divided by CO, but based on the entries for the Valley that may not be the case. Val Caron does have it's own CO (1741 Main W), but afaik Val Therese and Hanmer (which are separate in the dropdown list) are both served from the Hanmer CO at 4522 Dennie. There is however an unsigned building on Jeanne D'arc (»maps.google.ca/maps?q=46 ··· 33760679) which may or may not be relevant.

I think they're going from each CO, and going out from there as that would make sense as there is probably connection points from there and no sense to go from Brady downtown all the way out...but its tough to say not knowing whats going on...again its possible they're doing this now, if they're hiring sales reps that are going door to door, then it must be ready soon...I have ADSL2 now but I'm actually served from the CO believe it or not...I'm special like that...lol....not the Brady St CO, another CO somewhere else. It'll be exciting to see for sure though.

file
join:2011-03-29
Riverview, NB

file to avenison

Member

to avenison
I can explain a little bit about the box that habskilla previously linked to.

Bell Aliant has chosen a cost effective passive fiber deployment. This means that in the field between you and the CO there are no powered devices. The only powered devices are at the central office and your home. The rest is spliced together fiber and equipment which allows fiber to be 'split' to multiple homes.

This is in contrast to VDSL deployments where remotes have to have power and much smarter equipment to do things. In the end it's more cost effective.

The box linked is where this 'splitting' occurs. Fiber from the central office comes in, fiber from homes comes in, and the two are connected. It actually looks like an ethernet patch panel inside, except with fiber.

avenison
join:2009-12-10
90121

avenison

Member

What are the disadvantages of that topology? How many endpoints can each line out from the CO handle, and how does that affect latency?

I'm pretty interested to see what Vianet will be doing in response to this. Their 30/5 package seems pretty inline with 25/7 DSL (if it was available), but the only synchronous plan they have is 25/25, for $83/mo before taxes, etc. If B-A can do what they're doing in the Maritimes (mostly synchronous rates, no caps, reasonable prices) they will surely have to raise the stakes.

file
join:2011-03-29
Riverview, NB

file

Member

The number of houses sharing the fiber depends on the deployment, 16 or 32 being the most common (of course that is just the limit, you could have less). Latency isn't affected, fiber is f-a-s-t. My ping to the gateway at Bell Aliant is 1ms.

As for disadvantages you are sharing the bandwidth available on the fiber with other people. The control is tighter than cable though, with the amount you are allocated changing every few milliseconds. Bandwidth can also be guaranteed for phone and TV.

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy to avenison

Premium Member

to avenison
If you check fibreop.ca they've updated the website for Greater Sudbury, so I'm figuring the rollout is coming fast and furious...they also have a large billboard setup at Barrydowne and Westmount that advertises it...

They're advertising 15/15 for a promo price of $99.95 (includes TV and phone and $119.95 after the promo) and 30/30 with some more tv channels for $149.95 after promo (all $99.95 for the promo price)..

They're going to look at destroying vianet and making a run at Eastlink in the city....I sure hope they come to my area too!...so I can dump my almost 16/1 crap connection.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

What about people who just want the internet?

I hope they aren't gonna make it a mandatory bundle like they do with FibeTV where you must subscribe to their internet as well.

file
join:2011-03-29
Riverview, NB

file

Member

If you want just internet you can have just internet. If you want just TV you can have just TV. They'll work with you to get what you want.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

said by file:

If you want just internet you can have just internet. If you want just TV you can have just TV. They'll work with you to get what you want.

Ah, thats good at least.

avenison
join:2009-12-10
90121

1 edit

avenison to nitzguy

Member

to nitzguy
Yeah, I also heard a radio advertisement the other daysaying to visit the website.

Looking at the updates they've basically duplicated the pages from the maritime sites, although the packages are listed with fancy graphics now instead of an HTML table. No info on separate services, so no confirmation if they'll be offering 70/30 here (my ST516 is glaring daggers at me), but at least they have the bundle prices up. Interestingly, these are slightly cheaper than out east - the post-intro/get-you-to-sign-a-contract prices for "Good, Better, Best" packages are $16, $6, and $6 less. While at first glance that seems like a perk, it makes me wonder how much their profits are - considering that the varying coastal weather must raise upkeep costs way above say, our drunk drivers hitting the poles. Or one would hope...

The FAQ had me expecting a trollface to pop up. Some things that stood out:

1. Digs at Persona and whoever is selling their services: "[...] FibreOP delivers the only Internet that lets you Upload a 250 MB video in 1 minute - The cable company can’t come close to that upload speed."

2. No charge for installation. What? For real? We are clearly dealing with a different Bell.

3. Whose is bigger: boasting speeds they don't currently offer (or at least don't advertise): "Customers can access download speeds of up to 250Mbps and upload speeds of 30 Mbps [...]". Wait, why would the fastest upload speed be 30Mbps? Not that I'm complaining, but is there a technical reason? We're not talking about ADSL anymore here...

4. Apparently Bell Canada forgot to mention some things to Bell Aliant, otherwise I'm guessing this wouldn't have made it into the page:
" Q: The cable companies say they have 'fibre' too? Is that true?"
" A: The cable company’s fibre stops somewhere in your neighborhood. Then the signal converts into regular cable from there into your home. So the FibreOP network is actually connected right into your home, while the cable company is not."

Oh no! There are companies misrepresenting Fibe?! I mean, fibre? No wait, hmm. Nevermind.

5. Next item:
" Q: Is FibreOP really that much better than other alternatives?"
" A: FibreOP is a 100% fibre optic network that connects straight to your home so everything works faster, easier and better. Cable is not connected straight to your home so you share your network."

There are at least 3 things wrong here, but I'm sure this post is already too long. They say a Free Wireless Modem is included, does anyone know what the hardware is? Are they accessible by the user? Can I install Tomato on it?

file
join:2011-03-29
Riverview, NB

file

Member

I can answer a few of your questions/thoughts.

1. The website doesn't show you every possible combination you can get FibreOP services, you have to call for that.

2. If you go on a one year contract there is no charge for installation. If you don't I think it's $149.95. This is actually a bargain in my opinion because installing FibreOP can take anywhere from 4 hours to an entire day. Or two worst case.

3. There is no technical reason they can't increase the upload speed beyond 30Mbps. That is just what they have decided from a competitive perspective.

4. The included router (which has built-in wireless) is the Actiontec R1000H. It runs Linux but you can't build a custom firmware image and you can't install Tomato. If you want to replace this with a different device and have only internet it is easy if the new device supports VLANs. If you have TV service it becomes much more complicated. I have created custom firmware for the Asus RT-N56U which makes it a drop-in replacement and works perfectly.

johnB
@personainc.net

johnB to avenison

Anon

to avenison
Hello fellow Sudburians,

I work for Bell and will bring you all up to speed! Garson and New Sudbury are being rolled out first, July 5th is the target date. The work is being done by a contractor, VistaCare, out of Nova Scotia. Garson has been completely wired, and New Sudbury is being aggressively worked on to meet the target date. Behind A&W the main splices are being done as I type, and the fibre lines are being strung along Woodbine/Holland and all the connecting side roads. The entire length of Lasalle from Barrydowne to Notredame, both side, is being completed, followed by the other side from Barrydowne to Falconbridge. The Valley and Chelmsford are also in the works right now, but aren't going to be completed until August. Only two retailers, the Bell store in the mall and the Lefebvre store on the corner of lasalle@notredame will be selling the product, and the 1800 number of coarse.

It is a very exciting product, and Sudbury is the only city west of Quebec that has a FTTH network this extensive, very fortunate. Whether you are a Eastlink fan or a Bell fan, the heated competition in Sudbury is excellent for the consumer as we are able to access some of the best broadband services in the entire continent.

Feel free to ask me any questions, I will try my best to help!

Cheers
Riplin
join:2002-05-13
canada

Riplin

Member

is eastlink panicking? putting billboards up offering 200mbps now for 249.00/mth with a pathetic 250gb cap? what a joke.

This numbers game is getting stupid. grow up. wtf do we need 30mbps up for? give us better dl 70 or 100 with a nice 10mbps up for a decent price with no cap and you'll sink vianet and eastlink.

30mbps up? /Riplin shakes his head


johnB
@personainc.net

johnB

Anon

The 30mbps upload speed is going to be an excellent advantage for those who upload large files. Adding videos to YouTube, services such as iCloud, and adding photos to Facebook are all examples of when a high upload speed will make a dramatic difference. This is one area of FibreOP that cable cannot match completely.
Riplin
join:2002-05-13
canada

Riplin

Member

Meh, you don't need 30mbps to ul useless youtube videos or pictures to facecrack. Only benefit to 30+up is to maintain retarded ratio's on private tor sites or run a business where you need to send large media files out. I'm just saying gimme a 70/10 for 69.95/mth and you'll suck people in way more

BliZZardX
Premium Member
join:2002-08-18
Toronto, ON
·Bell Fibe Internet

1 edit

BliZZardX

Premium Member

You shouldn't pick bones with the speed when your real issue is price. It doesn't cost any more to deliver 1000Mbps than it does 30Mbps.

If I was in charge of plans I would sell this unlimited

10/10 $10 (priced like Comcast Internet Essentials for low income homes)
25/25 $25 (same deal above)
100/50 $50
100/100 $60
1000/100 $100
1000/1000 $120

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy to johnB

Premium Member

to johnB
said by johnB :

The 30mbps upload speed is going to be an excellent advantage for those who upload large files. Adding videos to YouTube, services such as iCloud, and adding photos to Facebook are all examples of when a high upload speed will make a dramatic difference. This is one area of FibreOP that cable cannot match completely.

Makes sense...hey with large download speed you want the same upload speed to ensure that you don't have any choke points for http requests and other upload type requests....so I won't complain.

Will it be available in apartment buildings, or just single family homes? Its not quite clear...

Wow, Garson first eh....that's a new one . But that being said I'll be happy to wait until August....I'm sure Teksavvy won't be happy but meh...what can you do, and I do see the Bell markings around my area...so its exciting for sure....

johnB
@personainc.net

johnB

Anon

To address your comment regarding apartments,

Much like what is being done out east, areas where FibreOP isn't planned(underground subdivisions, apartments) will have access to IPTV service over their existing wiring. This is not in the works this year, but it is on the drawing board. Internet speed aside, this service is very similar to FibreOP from all outward appearances.

Here's how it works, and here is the major difference. IPTV service requires fibre to the node. Current technology allows for up to 25mbps download 10mbps upload. However, even though the customer is provisioned for 25/10, the customer will only get 15/10 on the data portion of the connection, and video(always takes precedence) has a minimum of 10mbps dedicated. If, for example, a customer is watching 3 HD channels and 1 SD channel, their internet speed would then be 5mbps max.

This is the type of service being offered by Telus(Optik) out west and by AT&T(uVerse) in the US. It is not FibreOP, but it is a very legitimate alternative to the cable company. It will be available to many apartment dwellers who are forced to subscribe to cable due to restrictions on satellite installations in their buildings.

file
join:2011-03-29
Riverview, NB

file to BliZZardX

Member

to BliZZardX
said by BliZZardX:

You shouldn't pick bones with the speed when your real issue is price. It doesn't cost any more to deliver 1000Mbps than it does 30Mbps.

While it doesn't cost any more to deliver that there is a minimal amount to cover expenses don't forget. As it is while this is lower than DSL providing a better profit margin it still takes Bell Aliant many (6+) months to even begin making money off you with current pricing.
file

file to Riplin

Member

to Riplin
said by Riplin:

30mbps up? /Riplin shakes his head

While it's possible that for you 30Mbps up may not be that useful once people discover what they can do with it it actually gets used and people appreciate it.

How about being able to watch your TV from anywhere with a Slingbox? You can do that now but with 30Mbps up you can provide a beautiful 8Mbps HD stream. It really does look nice.

Cloud backups are a popular thing these days. They are excruciating on other internet service but with 30Mbps up? Much better. They don't become a burden on your internet connection, they just work in the background as they should.

Something as simple as emailing with attachments. That's instant now.

The 30Mbps up is also popular with photographers who want to put photos up online for customers to see.

As a country most of us don't use upload based services or think about what we can do because we *can't*. FibreOP opens the door to that. Personally my opinion is that upload will become ever more important going forward.
file

file to Riplin

Member

to Riplin
said by Riplin:

Meh, you don't need 30mbps to ul useless youtube videos or pictures to facecrack. Only benefit to 30+up is to maintain retarded ratio's on private tor sites or run a business where you need to send large media files out. I'm just saying gimme a 70/10 for 69.95/mth and you'll suck people in way more

Final thought since I keep finding new stuff I want to address...

Here in Atlantic Canada where Eastlink already exists and had better plans (I say had because they improved Sudbury's ahead of FibreOP deployment to try to help so they are now equal) people are leaving Eastlink a lot. Install wait times average 3-4 weeks. This trend is the same with Rogers here in New Brunswick who has crapper plans. I suspect this will carry on to Sudbury so they won't *need* to suck people in way more. The service speaks for itself and the vast majority of people are fine with the pricing.

BliZZardX
Premium Member
join:2002-08-18
Toronto, ON
·Bell Fibe Internet

1 edit

BliZZardX to file

Premium Member

to file
Whether you have 1Mbps or 1000Mbps, on GPON, the cost is the same. It's designed for 2.5/1.25Gbps, the standard says maximum splits is 32 customers and most ISPs pick 16.

Compare that with VDSL2. You share a 2x1Gbit line with up to 96 customers. They installed a remote in my building 2 years ago. On 12a at 200 meters loop length you can't get much more than 10Mbps upload on the Stingers. Less than 2 years later, if they want to offer 30Mbps up to compete with DOCSIS3, they have to gut and scrape the whole setup and replace it with fiber.

They recovered the cost in the first year. But it's still a waste of money to do everything twice.