“Enhancing our network to bring you faster service”

[asturias7]

I decided to post this here, although it will affect all my services (I have both TV and internet with Rogers). Today I received an email with the following, I will quote:

“Hello,

We are enhancing our network in your neighbourhood to provide faster service that will continue to keep up with your needs now and in the future.

We will start in the coming week(s) and normally require two planned interruptions. While we work, you may experience interruptions to your Rogers internet, TV and/or landline service(s) between 8am and 4pm. Mobile services will not be affected. 

We understand the importance of staying connected and will notify you via phone or text message two days before we start the work. 

If you have questions or want to learn more, please visit rogers.com/network-enhancement.

Thank you for choosing Rogers.

Damian Poltz
SVP, Wireline Network
Rogers Communications”

Does this mean that FTTH will be coming to my neighbourhood, or could this have something to do with the deployment of DOCSIS 4.0?

***Edited Labels***

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@asturias7 wrote:

Does this mean that FTTH will be coming to my neighbourhood, or could this have something to do with the deployment of DOCSIS 4.0?

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This is the notification that Rogers typically sends out when they are about to do a node split.  It also could be preparation for DOCSIS 4.0-related upgrades.

If you see crews upgrading and/or installing new equipment, try to find out what they are installing.  If they are upgrading Casa nodes with gear from Harmonic and installing CommScope full duplex amplifiers, that's a sign that they are prepping for D4.0, and deploying the same gear as Comcast.

If FTTH was coming to your neighbourhood, Rogers would be asking for permission to dig on your property and would also need to schedule an installation date/time to bring fibre into your home.

[asturias7]

OK thanks for the info. 👍  I had a feeling something was in the works because last week I saw someone measuring then spraying orange markings on grass across the street from my house. Since I already knew that orange is used for telecom burials, etc, I figured either Bell or Rogers were up to something... then this email arrived. Re FTTH, as the Rogers website states, they will indeed contact me if anything needs to be done on my property (as you mentioned).

[asturias7]

*UPDATE: Well that was quick... Got the email on Tues, April 8, received an automated phone call today from Rogers notifying me that work will commence on Tues, April 15. I will keep this thread updated as much as possible, as it might be of help to other customers.

[asturias7]

*UPDATE: I work from home and today there were absolutely no service interruptions between 8am and 4pm as, supposedly, scheduled... 🤷‍

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@asturias7 wrote:

*UPDATE: I work from home and today there were absolutely no service interruptions between 8am and 4pm as, supposedly, scheduled... 🤷‍

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The notice you received from Rogers was boilerplate.  You won't necessarily incur two outages.

When Rogers upgraded the old analog HFC fibre node in my area to a new DAA / R-PHY node, it went something like this:

• A crew came by and located all of the underground cables and utilities in the vicinity of the existing fibre node.
• The precise location for the new cabinet was marked right next to the existing node
• A construction crew arrived and used a Hydrovac excavator to dig a clean, square hole.  They then installed an underground vault, ran coax and fibre to the old node, and installed an empty above-ground cabinet on top of the new vault.
• The next day, a crew of Rogers sub-contractors arrived, installed a Casa DA2200 R-PHY node and power supplies in the new cabinet, terminated the coax cables, and installed the fibre connection to Rogers' network, and powered everything up.
• At this point, it should be a simple cut-over when the new node is ready to go live.  

I was seriously bummed that the crews were not there to install a FTTH OLT.  I also could not believe that they chose to install Casa DAA/R-PHY gear, which had been plagued with an ever-growing list of stability issues.  Garbage hardware from a vendor that just could not deliver a working product... who also (unsurprisingly) happened to go bankrupt a year later... yet Rogers continued to deploy that same gear everywhere.

• There was no activity for the next few days.  Presumably, the Rogers network team was testing the new hardware and getting the new node provisioned.
• Then, in the middle of the night, at 2:00 AM, I lost Internet connectivity.  A Rogers contractor took down the old fibre node, disconnected the coax legs (that fed four different areas of the neighbourhood) and connected them to the new node.  Presumably, there was another coordinated cutover in the back-end.  Total downtime was about two hours.
• The next day, the new node was operational in a basic config.  (Sub split, 32 downstream QAM channels, 1 downstream OFDM channel, 4 upstream QAM channels.)  Signal to my modem was pristine and perfect.  Unfortunately, when pinging 8.8.8.8, the new hardware added 5 - 25ms of latency and jitter with occasional latency spikes of up to 400 ms.
• A few days later, the node was re-provisioned with an additional downstream OFDM channel at 950 MHz and a new upstream OFDMA channel.  Shortly after doing that, the node crashed.  It fell flat on its face.  They tried to bring it up again but it could barely pass any traffic.  My Ignite Internet (and TV and Home Phone) service was down for more than three days.  A small fleet of Rogers maintenance vans had to visit the node and physically replace hardware to get it up and running again.  They had to do the same in all the other neighbourhoods that had been upgraded with that same hardware.
• They reverted back to the more stable channel config.  They also tried more ambitious channel configs a few more times, with each attempt resulting in yet another node crash and hours of downtime.

Hopefully your upgrade will fare better.  I never got a doorhanger, presumably because the planned downtime for the cut-over would occur during their overnight maintenance window.

[asturias7]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I wouldn't know half of this tbh. Anyhow, I honestly think Rogers contacted me way before anything will even start... I noticed another locator measuring and marking the same area with orange spray paint.

*PS: I also never got a doorhanger.

[asturias7]

*UPDATE: A worker used a Hydrovac excavator to dig a hole, so I'm going to presume it is related to the Rogers network enhancement. For the moment it is covered with a plate and cone/pylon.