Bell Aliant today announced that it's FibreOP service is now available in the North Side of Fredericton. (http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/4051/279/)

This was first announced in July of this year. Roll-out to rest of Fredericton and Saint John by middle of next year

I have signed up for this and will be getting it installed Oct 13th.

getting the full package 35 and 10

Install time is 4-5 hours.

Can't wait to see all the stuff they need to install. I am also a Bell Aliant employee :)

I'm curious how they're getting to the houses: are they microtrenching the fibre?

My installation date is Oct 14, and I'm not an Aliant employee. :) I'm going with the 20/5 plan (the 35/10 one is just overkill for my usage), and a TV package because the prices are better then Rogers. In particular $10/month for a dual tuner PVR instead of the $20 I'm paying for a single tuner now, or $25 for a dual tuner model. Rogers has done a lot to improve the cable TV service out here, but I don't watch that many channels and price wise it seems hard for them to compete.

From what the guy said on the phone, they do a line drop and run a fiber line to a box on the side of the home. I'm not sure what actually comes inside beyond that, or what kind of wiring is required inside for the TV.

Pretty excited. :)

As a fyi:
Aliant TV basic + 1 package, dual turner, + 2 SD boxes
20/5 internet service
= 157.95

Plus the CSR said it isn't a repackaged Bell TV (Expressvu) feed. So there is hope the quality will be better. The CSR I spoke to has FibreOp. He went from Bell TV to FibreOp and he said there is a difference in the quality. But you can take statement for what it's worth.

I wonder if they will have a demo at the Regent Mall store? I'd like to see the comparison of their HD services.

What I'd like to see is a comparison of what Rogers offers versus what Bell is offering. I'm a high usage custome of the HD channels and the dual turner PVR so I'm expecting a lot from this. Some of the prices mentioned already seem high...is that with home phone included plus high speed and TV? Where do I find this info, I didn't see it on Bell's site (must be looking in wrong spot).

Thanks!
Ron

Need to go to aliant.net. For TV packages make your way over to:
For your home --> Digital TV --> Bell Aliant TV --> Pricing & Packages

Make sure you set your province to NB.

They had a demo downtown during the HJBF last week. I'm certain there will be more demo's at kiosks. Probably @ Cox and Wacky's locations soon.

I've found ExpressVu was great (6141/6131 HD), and if you noticed, the ExpressVu receivers now come with HDMI outputs (capable of 1080i or p when channels start pushing that level resolution). I wonder what the FibreOp receivers have? (forgot to check).

I think this is great. Basically, as new internet apps & IP based home entertainment options are built to take advantage of this (just watch what is happening in FIOS territory), I"m thinking FibreOp will have the almost limitless capacity to take advantage of it. Aliant will be able to "up the ante" almost at will, in terms of product packaging.

I live in F'ton North, and I just got done with my FiberOp install - internet and TV.

Speed tests using Speakeasy.net to NYC show a bit over 20MB up, 2M down. I've been using Aliant DSL, which I think was 6 MB - pages seem a bit quicker, but I've only been using it for a couple of hours so haven't done a lot of testing. Downloading the ubuntu 9.10 ISO (687 MB) via bittorrent took a bit under 5 minutes, averaging over 2MB/s.

As for the installation, the fiber line comes from the pole to a box mounted ouside, and then cat 5 to the modem. From there, there are both cat5 and coax cables running to the various devices - one HD receiver is connected via cat5, another via coax, and the SD set is coax. Installation was nicely done, only the coax running to the SD set was reused (it's in the wall) - everything else was new, which might explain the 4 hour install time.

Both HD sets are using the HDMI output for video (HD PVR is a Motorola VIP1216, regular HD is a VIP1200). A quick test showed I was able to record one channel, and view another.

It took a bit of time to get the network figured out (there's about a dozen devices in total, some hard-wired, some wireless. I have a Linksys Wireless G router, so the configuration for that had to be changed - the supplied modem has both wireless and a DHCP server, but I wanted to continue to use the Linksys for my wireless needs. It was nice to see that the modem wireless has security enabled by default.

I'll post some more impressions after I've used it for a week or so.

Some more Info on the FibreOp service.

I have the 35Mbps and 10 Package.
I get 35.5+Mbps down and 10.4+Mbps Up.
(to do your speed test you need to go to www.speedtest.net and choose the Montreal server )

The TV service is good I have 1 HD dual Tuner PVR.
the feeds are 8Mbps per side.
The Fiber junction box on the outside of the Home is 100Mbps for now :)
the server seems really good. I am Loving the new internet speed.

If anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them.
I am fairly technical. ( IT Geek for Bell Aliant )


It is available on all of North side Fredericton.
Give them a call and check it out. :)

BIGFREAKHD - Is it an iNID for demarc of the fiber on the outside of the home?

Also, is it GPON for the Fiber Network?

When I worked for Aliant it was GPON and iNID's that they were considering using, but this was about a year or so ago so I don't know if they went with that solution or something else.

I cant wait until Fiber comes to Halifax!

Nope I think its an Alcatel On the out side of the house.

2wire Modem/router inside for the networking.

GPON = Not yet ;)

Looking forward to FiberOp on the southside, any idea on teh timeline?

I'm getting FibreOP in a week and a half (Fredericton north side, of course), and I'm curious if anyone has info on two things:

Is FibreOP an extension of Aliant's old, creaky PPPoE system, or is it a more modern IP system? I use Macs, and Aliant PPPoE frequently leads to tech problems: to put it politely, Aliant tech support and Macs are not exactly simpatico.

Does the Motorola VIP1216 HDTV IPTV PVR support external USB drives like the equivalent BellTV satellite units do? I'd really prefer to buy the unit, but if I have to rent (like you currently do for Aliant's IPTV), I at least want to be able to plug in a larger hard disk for better storage. I'm sticking with satellite for now, but my Bell PVRs will eventually die, and IPTV seems like a better way to go in the future.

From what I can see, the 2wire connects via PPPoE, but it has a DHCP server built in, so you don't have to deal with PPPoE on the mac.

There is an option in the modem for DHCP, but I haven't tried it to see if it works.

Thanks -- glad to hear my experience will (likely) be PPPoE headache free.

Anyone of those who have already been installed have any pictures of the equipment?

I am getting installed at the end of the week and would like to know exactly what all needs to go inside the house so I know what areas I may have to clear for the installer.

Thanks,
Mike

My installation includes a box outside where the fiber comes in from the pole. This will probably be around the power meter, so make sure there's enough room - the box is about 10" x 14". Cat5 runs from the box to the router.

Not sure where the modem/router will go, but the router is fairly large - leave around 12" x 14" for it and the wires. Obviously, you need power handy for the modem - at my place, everything was mounted on the garage wall, including the power supply for the modem and a small UPS.

And from there, it's cat5 or coax to the TVs.

Hey Mike, I had part of my installation done today. Here are some details.

Looks like they can put the box either inside or outside. The big limitation for the location of the box is that it needs to be near a proper ground. This includes things like the Power Meter casing outside, or the breaker panel inside the home.

By far, the most challenging part of the install at my home has been running the wires from the outside to my utility room where the fiber box is located. I live in a townhouse (12 side by side units), so it is not trivial. After 8 solid hours of fiddling, the cable is still not even run. The technicians will need to come back another day to try different strategies. This would probably not be an issue for a normal house.

The fiber cables are very clumsy. They don't bend well at all, so things like running the cable around corners is difficult. You can pretty much forget about running them along baseboards if you plan on turning a wall.

Inside, from what I understand, internet can be fed through the regular phone wiring in the home. For TV, they can apparently use the coax. Haven't gotten this far, so I can't confirm anything.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2795/dsc00036c.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/i/dsc00036c.jpg/)

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6940/dsc00037z.th.jpg (http://img444.imageshack.us/i/dsc00037z.jpg/)

Other pieces of information that I was able to find out. South side will be getting fiber sometime early next year. Apparently, apartment buildings are a problem and they will not be doing them until they can figure out a proper strategy. I'm not entirely sure what this means. Different hardware maybe.