Upgraded Act Fibernet Plans in Chennai

[warpspeed]

Yea, GPON providers don't usually supply any router. Same with my ISP as well. Is there any refundable amount in that 2k? otherwise that seems very high just for installation.

 

[Jay]

They quoted me 5k for giga installation a few months ago. Non refundable. Although i think now they've revised it to 2.5k for existing connections.

Shouldn't they be providing an ONT if the optical fibre terminates in the house? I assumed that's what the installation charges are for.

 

[AgentX]

The 2k is for installation/ONT for existing customer as I'm told and non-refundable; ultimately you'll end up with ethernet but the fiber terminates inside the house rather than outside in a shared box.

 

[Jay]

What's the advantage of having a separate ONT? Better speeds than a shared one? If so I'm assuming there is a bandwidth limit for each fibre connection? I ask because the distance to my nearest ONT is barely 10 meters and ethernet cables seem to be capable of handling 1/10 Gbps depending upon the spec.

 

[varkey]

^ Yep, but you are mostly connected to a shared switch I believe, and if you have noisy neighbours your throughput can go down.
In a normal shared ethernet connection, their uplink is probably at 1 Gbps as most ONTs just have a 1 Gbps port, and I am sure they'd over provision that switch more than the available capacity. I haven't seen what type of devices they use for these shared installations, but it would probably be some relatively cheaper grade devices.

I guess in those cases it does help, atleast you are guaranteed the 1 Gbps till their OLT device.

 

[Jay]

I did some digging and ACT seems to be using CTS SWH-3109 switch for shared connections and CTS Acton-1000(can't find the specs for that one anywhere) - something like the HET-3012-DR for home giga connections.

 

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[AgentX]

Plan changed but the wiring change hasn't happened yet.

I have it connected to an Ubiquiti Edgerouter X - but connecting the ethernet directly doesn't make a difference. Download jumps from 400 to 600 ~ probably means download congestion I guess from the switch I'm connected to.

 

[Raj]

@AgentX

Can you try downloading some large game from Steam and check whether you can Max Out? Steam seems to have servers in Chennai. Also can you post the fast.com speeds.

 

[AgentX]

Fast.com

Steam (insurgency game, it's free right now so go ahead and grab it while it's available)

Download jumps from 400 to 600 as said earlier, it most likely will be higher and stable after fiber termination. Will keep you folks updated. Speed tests will likely use all of my FUP this month lol.

 

[warpspeed]

Nice speeds. Can you also post speedtest result to Singapore and Frankfurt please.

 

[Jay]

^ I'd like to see those as well please. Preferably ones after 6pm, when it's peak traffic. I'm also interested in seeing what they installed at the house, equipment wise.
@AgentX

 

[AgentX]

My installation ticket is still pending with ACT; even though the plan has been changed, fees have been paid (including installation!), etc. I will try to escalate and try to get the dates extended. When you think about it, I got the plan in the middle of the month (but I will have to renew again next month beginning as usual). They assume this $ covers this whole remaining month only but I paid for the full month. That's BS.

Anyway, here are some speedtest results. My area has a power cut (and when I took the tests) so you can subtract a little bit on the Download side considering I'm still in a shared switch.

Chennai : (ACT / Airtel servers)

Singapore : (Singtel / Viewqwest servers)

Frankfurt : (LeaseWeb / DEAC servers)

All tests taken at 7PM, local area without power. (not whole Chennai, so congestion wise I still get decent speeds elsewhere).

 

[warpspeed]

700 Mbps to SGP and 200+ Mbps to DE is rather impressive considering you're still on shared switch.