GOT FIBRE….. What now? So you got fibre. What does it mean to you? John Currie, Geek JEC Technologies John.currie@jectech.co.za 082 801 4271 So you got fibre. What does it mean to you? How do you extract the most benefit from it? If you Google “fibre” you get thousands of hits on technical articles and even more hits on eating carrots… I live in Parkmore and I volunteered to assist and drive the fibre deployment in our area. Currently I run a cloud-solutions business for Small and Medium Enterprises, which exposes me to anything related to connectivity and running services on the internet. I could use my expertise with our neighbourhood to cut through the hype and help you understand what is possible can utilise this.

Fibre TV & MEDIA PROPERTY Higher property value TELEPHONY Higher rental TELEPHONY Cheap local calls VOIP Skype Fibre SMART HOME Automation Smart phone Energy management IOT SECURITY Smart phone integration Remote monitoring HD video Audio Extended to suburb Rtdfm,cHOME: Installing fibre in your neighbourhood will increase your property prices and allow you to charge higher rent. The increase could be as much as 5% in property value and 12% increase in rent. MEDIA & TV: With activation of broadband (such as fibre) you can unlock the access to a large amount of streaming solutions. Streaming mean on demand content such as movies & music. If you are happy to continue to pay the increased DSTV premium costs, by connecting your PVR, you can download and store extra content. Have you seen the recent adverts of ShowMAX, a content streaming service, similar to NetFlix and Hulu. NetFlix is now available in South Africa through a subscription. Most smart TV’s can connect to this service and can be purchased on month-to-month. Once you have connected your devices, streaming your personal content (video’s, pics of the kids’ party, bungee jumping) across multiple devices becomes easy. TELEPHONY: What now happens to your standard telephone? You can make a phone call with fibre. Many service providers allow you to transfer your current landline number to a VOIP solution. Alternatively, keep the line. VOIP = Voice Over IP. Advert of Cell C or skype – you are basically using data cost to transfer voice packets. What this allows is cheaper telephone calls, especially VOIP to VOIP. Some service providers (like MTN in Parkmore) committed free calls within the neighbourhood – great if your mother-in-law stays close by. HOME SECURITY: Having broad band really increases what you can do around security. Most people already have alarms, cameras and some smart phone integration. With high speed connection you can stream high quality video from your home to any device, have two way audio from home to any remote device and control most features on your security system. Again, some service providers allow free security traffic (camera data) to be processed through the suburb, which means you can have cameras up in multiple spots in the suburb, and the security company can monitor it without incurring additional data cost. SCHOOL: Schools are becoming more “plugged-in” – broadband increases the speed at which kids can research, find information, learn online. It will help the parents, too… SMART HOME: As a gadget guru, this is my favourite section when it comes to enabling your home with fibre. The possibilities are endless. Automation – you can automate every component in your house like lights, coffee machine, garage doors opening when you approach in your car, sensory door locks that can be unlocked with your smart phone. With the world becoming more green-conscious, the idea of energy management is more important these days. Through smart automation you can not only monitor your energy usage, but also control switching your appliances on and off through your smart phone or automatically switching off the lights when the kids have left the room. The tech industry has a large drive to the Internet Of Things – it means that devices that are not usually connected to the internet can now be integrated into your SMART home and controlled via any device. An example would be washing machines, fridges that can scan the contents of your fridge and order milk when you need it or remind you to throw out last week’s pizza. SMART SCHOOL Online Learning Home schooling Research

A cautionary note: Faster speed means faster data consumption The internet can be a dangerous place Don’t rush to buy all the fancy gadgets If you don’t have an uncapped data subscription, your data will be used quickly. Putting in a certain level of monitoring or control of the sites that your family can access, is just common sense. Not only will you help prevent exposure to risky content, but you will decrease your risk of viruses and malware. Don’t rush out and buy the first gadget that catches your eye, do research, think about the user-friendliness. You’ll have to install it and maintain it and use it. Read the reviews and make sure that it fits your need, your lifestyle and your budget.