Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Internet service

[Lanny]

I signed up yesterday. April fools day... If all goes well, they will install by the end of the month.  We will be getting 20 Mbps Internet, service to 3 TVs, and a Landline phone. That will be a huge leap for us, since the old phone company had to downgrade  our ADSL from 5 to 2 Mbps, after they discovered that each of the 2 TV sets requires about 8 Mbps.  With this FTTH service, the Internet and Landline phone come in on the Fiber Optic cable. The TV service is via a Satellite Dish (like we had when we had TV service from Directv Colombia) and the 2 systems are completely separate.  The extra TV Decoder box is approximately USD $2.60 per month at todays exchange rate.  The first 2 months of service will be free. The installation will be free and they will give us a Tablet. We had to sign a 12 month contract, which seems reasonable.  A neighbor down the street is an Electronic Engineer for them (major Cell provider).  Yesterday, in the afternoon, they were installing 100 Mbps service to his house. He will Beta test it for a couple of weeks and when he thinks it is solid, they will begin installing it in the homes that have signed up. This is brand-new technology in our part of Colombia. I think this will cost us approximately USD$12 a month more than what we are paying now.

[Guest]

We are huge fans of fiber and hope it's available to our home when we build. It really depends on the area though.

[Lanny]

We are huge fans of fiber and hope it's available to our home when we build. It really depends on the area though.

 

Yes, it requires the provider install a completely new infrastructure in the area.  Our neighbor told me they have been using it in parts of the city of Ibague (that's about 2/3 of the way on the highway from Cali to Bogota) for about one year now.  We will be among the very first people in this area to have it. Our neighbor (an Electronic Engineer for that Cell provider for 20 years) will be our first user.  He will be checking it out, Beta testing,  probably for a couple of weeks, to verify that it is solid and stable.  My guess is that he will tell them when he thinks it is OK to proceed and that after he signs off, they will  begin installing to the homes that have signed up.  Usually, he is involved with Cell towers, Switches, etc., for Cell service, so this is a different thing for him to be involved in.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Lanny

[Lanny]

Follow-on: I signed up on April Fools Day 2017, knowing they would not begin installations here until approximately the middle of April or later. That day, they installed FTTH service to the house of our neighbor, the Electronic Engineer for a Major Cell provider.  I'm glad he was our "Beta tester".  He posted in one of the "WhatsApp" chat channels for our HOA, a screen shot of 106 Mbps Line Speed.  They can do that (100 Mbps service)  because they are paying about the same for Directv Colombia TV service plus what they are paying for their Landline phone and 5 Mbps ADSL Internet. (Also, they have more income than we do).    We are very budget-limited and I signed up for 20 Mbps Internet, 3 TV sets, and the landline phone. It will cost us a little more than we are paying now, for 2 Mbps ADSL and 2 TV sets and the Landline phone.

 

Last Friday night, in Zumba, the wife of the Electronic Engineer was there and she said it had been down for 3 days. Not good and fingers crossed that will not happen again. And she or her DH told me they are adding Infrastructure. I think more people signed up when they first offered the service here, than they had anticipated, which is good. It cost them a huge amount of $ to install the infrastructure in this huge rural subdivision where the homes are spread out.

 

Yesterday, last night, a neighbor posted in the Chat for Neighbors, (there are 3 WhatsApp channels), that he had called the company and was told he was not in the system.  Then, he called the sales person who had signed him up, and if I understood, the sales person was "too busy" to enter the service request into their system. However, it could be that the System was too busy or not set up to take service requests?  It was in Spanish so I'm not 100% sure but my wife read it last night and she was not favorably impressed with what he wrote that he was told yesterday.

 

This morning, I told my wife, "After Breakfast, I am going to call them, to verify that we are in the system." Today is April 27th.  The man told me that the date on our request is yesterday, April 26th.  So,  that was good, and we are in the system...

 

An hour or so later, I received a call on my cell phone from that company, verifying some of the information in the service request (I think that is a step to confirm it is a valid order?)  and then he told me that I would probably receive a call this afternoon, on my cell phone (nobody here calls a landline phone these days, they always want your cell phone number) to schedule the installation appointment.

 

Hopefully, they will install the FTTH Internet service to our house next week.  I believe after that, the installation of the TV service, which is by satellite, like when we had Directv Colombia TV service, will be done at a later date.

 

We are supposed to get a free Tablet, but my wife requested a Smartphone, which they usually give to people who sign up for 10 Mbps (we signed up for 20) because she wants to give it for a gift. Hopefully, their system got that special request and they can give us a Smartphone instead of a Tablet.   And, the installation is free along with the first 2 months are free.

 

Approximately 25% of the homes in our part of this huge rural subdivision are already signed up and others are curious.  

 

I think we will keep the old service for a month or so, before I cancel it.  They have had IMO excellent Tech Support and they have an office I can ride my bike to, where they are very helpful,  but they are not going to upgrade their infrastructure here, which is why we are switching away from them.  

Edited April 27, 2017 by Lanny

[Lanny]

Update: Today is Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday in Colombia (May 1st).   My cell phone rang awhile ago and it was the new provider calling, to arrange the Installation appointment. We are scheduled for May 11th, from 7 A.M. to Noon. I will keep my fingers crossed (and pray) for good weather for that day...

 

There are 2 separate systems involved. The first is the FTTH service, which will bring in Internet and a Landline phone. The other is the TV service, which will be by Satellite, as when we had Directv Colombia.  

[Lanny]

Follow on: Today (11 May 2017) was the day our new ISP programmed for installing the Internet service, service for 3 TV sets  by Satellite (like we had during the years we had Directv Colombia) and a Landline phone.  I thought they might arrive as early as 7 A.M. At 810 a man (the crew chief) called and said they were on their way. I think they got here at 1010, but there may have been some work underway on our street, that we were unaware of, before that.  They left about 5 P.M.

 

Our contract with them is for 20 Mbps, but for the first 2 months, the crew chief said they would give us 30 or 40 Mbps.  On Speedtest.Net from ETB Bogota, the Download speed to my Laptop, via WiFi to the HGU (Home Gateway Unit box is larger than the ADSL Modem I will return to the old phone company tomorrow)., was 46.1 Mbps.  Testing on SpeakEasy.Net from New York City, the Download speed was 37.06 Mbps.  Colombia has an Undersea Cable that goes in somewhere in the Miami - Ft. Lauderdale area, so we have some latency from that.

 

Previously, we had 2 TV sets using TV over IP.  My wife told me that during the past week or two, if they were watching one TV, and the other TV was then turned on, it degraded the reception for the TV that had been on first. That was new. We did not bring that issue up with the old phone company, because we had signed up with the new ISP that spent a lot of  $ installing their Fiber Optic Infrastructure in our huge rural subdivision.

 

NOTE; 2 unexpected things I am very frustrated with tonight. One is that I cannot connect with my Laptop using Ethernet (connected by cable).  I think it is possible the HGU is not configured for Ethernet and hopefully if I call their Tech Support, they can enable that in the configuration of the HGU.  If it isn't that, I assumed it would work and have no idea why it is not working at this time.

 

The other thing is that I assumed I could reconfigure the 2 TP-LINK WiFi Routers that we have been using for 2 or 3 years, in 2 areas of this very large house. I cannot even log into the unit I started with late this afternoon. 

 

There were six (6) men here part of the time. Most of the time, we had 2 to 4 men working in the house and there were a couple of other men working in the street.  I understand they were also working in another house, on the street behind us.

 

The Gardener showed up about 7 or 8 this morning to mow the jungle (very frequent rain recently due to the situation in the Eastern Pacific Ocean) and he was here. Including my wife, DD, and me, we needed 10 lunches.  My wife called a restaurant we had years ago bought lots of take out meals from, possibly back to the days the house was under construction.  They sent a lot of food and everyone was well fed.

 

I had been praying that we would not get rain while they were here and the "weather gods" cooperated beautifully and it was a beautiful day for the work they had to do in and near our house today and I thank God for answering my prayers for good weather today.  Almost constant rain here recently. 

[Lanny]

Well. This morning, I went to the office of our old ISP, with the ADSL modem and 2 TV decoders, etc., with a letter to discontinue our service with them.   Apparently, yesterday, there was a problem, and they are trying to get that fixed, whatever it is, and the office was not open to the public.  Now, I am wondering, if yesterday, when our next door neighbor said the men from our new ISP had cut their phone line, I am wondering if the problem was that the phone company went down, because of that issue. May or may not be related.

 

This afternoon, I will try to call the Tech Support of the new ISP and hopefully they can (remotely) turn on the Ethernet capability of the HGU (Home Gateway Unit).  My Workstation was unable to identify the network and I think it did not get an IP address from the HGU, so that is something we need, that I assumed would be working when they finished the installation, but I never thought to mention it to them yesterday...

 

After we have Ethernet, then I can resume work on reconfiguring the 2 TP-LINK WiFi Routers as WAPS (Wireless Access Points).  Those connect to our SWITCH via Ethernet cable.  

 

When I went in last night, my wife and DD were both using their computers, on WiFi.  My DD was playing a game she could not play before, and certainly not if my wife was Gaming or doing something that consumed a lot of bandwidth.  When I asked how it was going, my wife said "ooof" or some word like that.

 

Happy Campers and we will be happier, if I can get the Ethernet going and then the TP-LINK units reconfigured.

 

Before I ended this, I just checked on SpeakEasy.net/SpeedTest from NYC.   29.02 Mbps Download.  And  from Atlanta:  38.70 Mbps   That's with my Mobile Workstation "connected" via WiFi

[Lanny]

We have Ethernet now. That was one of the most stupid (and common) mistakes people can make... I had given one of the men from our new ISP a very short CAT5 cable, to put between the HGU (Home Gateway Unit) and our Switch.  Everyone was tired by that time (5 P.M.) and there was a lot of information, going from them, in Spanish, to my wife and DD and me.   Thank God, before I called their support, I checked the cables...   The short cable I had given to him for that ,was just hanging there, not connected to anything.  SOLVED...  My Mobile Workstation is connected via CAT5 Ethernet cable as I type this.    :hurray:

 

The other issue  about how to get into the TP-LINK units is a lot harder. Thank God, one of the men gave my wife the URL for how to log into the HGU and the Password.  They are using a slightly different range of IP addresses for DHCP, than I had used. Their range is much lower than what I'd used before.  I had   set one of the TP-LINK units with a Dedicated IP address ending in 71 and the other an IP address ending in 72.  The highest number I saw in the DHCP table that is in use now is 52.  I do not see where the range of IP addresses is set, so I cannot extend it.

 

So, I still cannot log into the TP-LINK units, in the normal way, but I think I know why...   I need to get in, manually, somehow (get out the manual and read) and  then change the IP addresses to end in a lower number, like 31 and 32, and if I can do that, I should be OK.   Fingers crossed.

 

The TP-LINK unit my wife and DD were using where their computers are, I screwed up last night in the frustration and with no Ethernet, and Reset it, so it is probably back to Factory Configuration.  They are doing well, on WiFi for the moment.

 

The other TP-LINK unit is more critical, for the other end of the house, so my wife wants me to work on that one first.

 

The worst case now is that we would need to buy a WAP (Wireless Access Point), designed specifically to be a WAP, and hope (and pray) that it is compatible with our HGU, but I would think (assume) they use IEEE standards and are compatible.  That would require that we spend money to buy it, and then, hope and pray, that it works properly.  If I can reconfigure the TP-LINK units, they are connected by CAT5 cables to our Switch and guaranteed to work. 

 

The HGU works on 2 WiFi Bands.  I am not sure if the Moto phone we bought for DD (in February)  has both bands, but it certainly has a better WiFi radio or Modem or whatever. than my very low end Samsung from late 2014.  Standing near the HGU when they were testing yesterday, I think she was seeing download speed of about 46 Mbps and I was seeing about 26 Mbps. Not at all bad considering that our ADSL from the phone company had been reduced from 5 Mbps to 2 Mbps 2 or 3 years ago, when they discovered how much each TV on TV over IP uses.

 

I need to call their Support, because when I went out this afternoon I gave a paper to the guards at the Main Gate, with our new phone number. They told me that we can call them (which is true), but if they try to call us, from the original phone company, they get a recording that it is long distance.  We are approximately 600 meters (yards) as the Crow flies, from them. Hopefully that is just a glitch that can be eliminated quickly if I can talk with their Support people.

 

Much progress here since yesterday morning with regard to improved Internet and improved TV!.   :mellow:   

Edited May 12, 2017 by Lanny

[Lanny]

We can do things on WiFi now, that we could not do on Ethernet before, with our incredibly slow (2 Mbps) Line Speed on ADSL.  I have one of the TP-Link Wi-Fi Routers reconfigured to work as a WAP (Wireless Access Point) with our new   ISP. I had to Reset it to the way it was when it left the factory, then configure it as a Router, which is what it was designed to do, and then change that, so it works as a WAP.  I will try to do the other TP-Link WiFi Router tomorrow.  

[Lanny]

The migration is almost complete.  I have reconfigured both of the TP-LINK WiFi Routers to work as WAPs (Wireless Access Points) on our new ISP. What would have (hopefully) taken me approximately 20 minutes for each unit, was impossible to do, because the IP range of the HGU (Home Gateway Unit) apparently ends with an IP address of .52 and I had those units with IP addresses ending in .71 and .72.  Sigh. That made it impossible for me to log into those units and make the quick changes I needed to make in the settings.   Difference in how our old ADSL Modem was set up by the old phone company and how the HGU is set up by our new ISP (a major cell provider, among other things). That was a very time consuming PITA.

 

Now, I want to do a test, with both WAPs, in the farthest point from the HGU, to see which WAP performs better there. I think the one we have been using there for 2 1/2 years, the WiFi isn't working?  That location will get the best performing WAP and the other one will go into the location where my wife and DD have 3 of their 4 computers, where the WiFi is very strong and they can connect 3 of the 4 computers to the WAP via CAT5 cables and be connected via Ethernet..

 

Fingers crossed that early tomorrow morning it will not rain and that I can go to the office of our old phone company/ISP and return the ADSL Modem and the stuff for the 2 TVs and cancel our account with them. I'd gone there early Friday morning to do that, but apparently they had an issue, Thursday, and their system was down, so that was a wild goose chase.

 

On  the AT&T Speedtest this afternoon, using this Dell Precision Mobile Workstation, connected via Ethernet (CAT5 cable) the Download Speed was 44.4 Mbps. I assume their Server is in the USA? Possibly in Miami, but I have no idea where it is.  On my old (2014), very low end Samsung Android phone, 26.04 Mbps from Bogota.

 

We are extremely happy with the new Internet service   :hurray:  and I think when my wife tries Netflix, it will be much better/easier than with our old ISP.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Lanny

[Lanny]

"Murphy's Law" struck this morning. Everything was perfect (more than perfect as my wife says) from the 11th of May, when they finished the installation, until approximately 10 this morning. I was about an hour late to leave the house, and when I was going to log off my Mobile Workstation, I noticed there was no Internet. Looked at the lights on the HGU (Home Gateway Unit) and 2 of them were Red (4 Blue lights is normal operation).   

 

My wife thought they were installing FTTH to the neighbors house, on the North side. I went to the street and there were 2 vehicles and a bunch of guys working in the street. I told them they'd cut our Internet service and our landline phone line.

 

After awhile, I remembered that Saturday afternoon, the neighbor to our North showed me what he thought was our cable laying on top of the ground on the other side of the street. Not good when the Gardeners mow the lawn there.  I showed them the cable he'd showed me and I think it may in fact have had to do with our FTTH service, which is supposed to have the cables underground.

 

I think there were 2 or 3 disasters, with our Fiber Optic Cable today. First, possibly an accident when they were installing FTTH to the neighbors house. Then, trying to fix the place where that cable was on top of the ground.  Then something else.  They got us up and running at about 5 P.M. and we are Happy Campers again.    I think one of the men told my wife they used a different kind of cable today. Higher quality.

 

The 3 TV sets are working fine.

 

The only issue has to do with the old phone company.  The security guards at the gate have a phone with that company (our previous ISP).   If they try to call our house, with our new phone number from the new phone  company, due to a glitch in their system, it thinks it is long distance. It is actually approximately 500 meters (1500 feet) distance. That's trivial for us. The old phone company will eventually eliminate that issue.

[Lanny]

My wife just called me in, to watch something she and DD were Downloading.   I assume it was coming from a Server in the USA. We are in Colombia, so there is a lot of Latency, because of the Undersea Cable from Colombia to Florida.  The  file was 1.8 GB in size. Temporarily, we have 50 Mbps service, but they will throttle us back to the 20 Mbps I signed up for, on approximately July 11th, 2 months after the installation date.  It showed peak transfer speed of 5.8 MBps and average of 5.7 MBps.  I think the Download took approximately 5 or 6 minutes?   :hurray:

 

This is something DD said she would have had to have running, all night, to download, with our previous (very slow) 2 Mbps ADSL service from our original phone company.  Originally we had 5 Mbps service with them, but then they added TV over IP service and we added 2 TV sets and eventually they found the TVs needed approximately 8 Mbps each, and they reduced our Internet Line Speed to 2 Mbps.