Afrihost MTN Fixed LTE-A Thread

dotcat said:

Your SIM card has been permanently linked to your 4G router.​

As of 01 January 2026 MTN implemented a new rule. SIM cards used in 4G routers that are four years or older have been permanently linked to their current device.​

This means that if your SIM card is lost or damaged and requires replacement, your existing 4G router will no longer be able to reconnect to the MTN network using a new SIM. In this case, you would need to purchase both a new SIM card and a new router.

Because your current router is an older 4G model, now is an ideal time to upgrade to a device that provides faster, more stable and more reliable connectivity. Please visit our website if you wish to purchase a new 5G router.

@Afrigirl what is this please? Seems like a pretty poor taste way to force us to buy newer hardware?
Click to expand...
Hi.

At the moment, all 4G devices currently paired with active MTN LTE packages remain allowed and will continue to work as usual.

Unfortunately, we are unable to change or override MTN's policy. The new device-linking rule is applied at the network level by MTN. This only affects you if the SIM is lost or damaged and needs to be replaced, because the replacement SIM won't reconnect to the original 4G router.

If you haven't had any issues with your current setup, no immediate action is required.
 
Afrigirl said:
Hi.

At the moment, all 4G devices currently paired with active MTN LTE packages remain allowed and will continue to work as usual.

Unfortunately, we are unable to change or override MTN's policy. The new device-linking rule is applied at the network level by MTN. This only affects you if the SIM is lost or damaged and needs to be replaced, because the replacement SIM won't reconnect to the original 4G router.

If you haven't had any issues with your current setup, no immediate action is required.
Click to expand...
If a simcard is under 4 years old does that mean its not linked?
 
@Afrigirl

Question: MTN's new network management of FWA over and above Afrihost's FUP (the one where MTN manages FWA at network level)

Does it apply to 4G/LTE only?
I have a feeling MTN does not apply this management or sharing policy on 5G.

For example, if you are in an area with 4G/LTE only or use a router that does not support 5G (being connected to 4G/LTE network) you are 'managed'

When connected to the MTN 5G network on FWA, the network management is not applied by MTN, only the ISP/resellers FUP is applied.

Would I be correct?
 
Hummercellc said:
@Afrigirl

Question: MTN's new network management of FWA over and above Afrihost's FUP (the one where MTN manages FWA at network level)

Does it apply to 4G/LTE only?
I have a feeling MTN does not apply this management or sharing policy on 5G.

For example, if you are in an area with 4G/LTE only or use a router that does not support 5G (being connected to 4G/LTE network) you are 'managed'

When connected to the MTN 5G network on FWA, the network management is not applied by MTN, only the ISP/resellers FUP is applied.

Would I be correct?
Click to expand...
Hi,

Regarding 5G FWA, MTN hasn’t publicly shared whether this network-level management applies, so we can’t confirm either way. It’s possible that its not, so your assumption could be correct.
 
19040147904.png


OMG whats with the Internet Speeds?

Getting packet loss spikes to 80% also.

:mad::crying:
 
Quad! said:
19040147904.png


OMG whats with the Internet Speeds?

Getting packet loss spikes to 80% also.

:mad::crying:
Click to expand...

MTN's LTE is a mess since they disabled carrier aggregation for all uncapped packages. Likely not your issue here but it doesn't help it.
 
I also noticed Fixed LTE on MTN Direct, Vox and Afrihost no longer perform Carrier Aggregation.
Unless you have 5G coverage and a 5G Router, then you easily get up to 5 bands on LTE plus the 5G band aggregated as MTN run 5G NSA.

Mobile data does however aggregate on LTE, I am seeing 4 bands aggregated on my honor phone on MTN. In the same location as my Fixed LTE.

What makes things worse, Afrihost don't have breakout in KZN.
Only JHB and CPT.
So when KZN people connect over MTN and Load Balancing routes us through CPT, latency is high, 100ms to JHB and 80ms odd to KZN.

I am not holding much hope with Afrihost getting KZN breakout on AirMobile or MTN Fixed LTE.

Let alone VoLTE and VoWiFi...

MTN have become a sad show.

Vodacom really is starting to over take MTN at a rapid rate.
 
So, on my Pi SIM, VoLTE and VoWiFi started working today. (AirMobile still nothing)



And Pi uses MTN directly for Internet breakout. (Us KZN people will breakout in Durban giving us lower latency and speeds are better strangely, where AirMobile only has breakout in CPT and JHB)



So all my AirMobile services now cancelled and ports pending to Pi already.



Pricing is slightly better with the discounts given on multiple SIMs.

Plus unused included data can roll over for 12 months.
 
I managed to get 2CA on LTE with Afrihost fixed LTE (capped) with my ZTE MC801A (band 3 and band 41), but only for a few minutes at a time before it somehow just drops CA and reverts to using band 3 only.

Speedtest.net starts off spiking at 60 Mbit/sec but then quickly appears to be throttled down to around 30 Mbit/sec.

When I had MTN Shesh the router used other Cell IDs, but Afrihost uses the same Cell IDs as a vanilla MTN mobile data contract sim, but mostly no CA allowed on AH, it seems.
 
ajax said:
I managed to get 2CA on LTE with Afrihost fixed LTE (capped) with my ZTE MC801A (band 3 and band 41), but only for a few minutes at a time before it somehow just drops CA and reverts to using band 3 only.

Speedtest.net starts off spiking at 60 Mbit/sec but then quickly appears to be throttled down to around 30 Mbit/sec.

When I had MTN Shesh the router used other Cell IDs, but Afrihost uses the same Cell IDs as a vanilla MTN mobile data contract sim, but mostly no CA allowed on AH, it seems.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it seems to be specific to Afrihost, if you use a MTN Direct or Pi Fixed LTE/5G SIM, you get full CA on all available bands
 
@Hummercellc which pi fixed LTE package did you test?
They mention that best effort speeds are only available for 3 months. Wonder if they will then remove CA?
1776427525754.png
 
The 1TB at R699
Pi are cheaper than Afrihost 400GB and the 1TB on Pi is also more data than the FUP on the highest uncapped package Afrihost offers for Fixed LTE/5G.

The best effort speed for 3 months only applies to the 200GB and 500GB then it drops down.
1TB remains best effort speed.
 
Morning @AfriGuy @AfriNatic

I woke up this morning to find my fixed lte looking like this ( even after restart) Tested a normal mtn sim on the same tower. Also massive packetloss. Phone legacy afrihost apn/mtn apn doing the same.


image.png
 
I just signed up for fixed LTE. They're dispatching the router. Afrihost emails today and says the price is going up. The 100mbps package that was R599 is going up and will now cost R693 starting June 1st. Lol, what a warm welcome.
 
Quintus26 said:
I just signed up for fixed LTE. They're dispatching the router. Afrihost emails today and says the price is going up. The 100mbps package that was R599 is going up and will now cost R693 starting June 1st. Lol, what a warm welcome.
Click to expand...
Yea funny part is that mtn will throttle you before they do, so you are paying more for less
 
1777373013026.pngWonder if mtn will throttle me on the 800GB as well. Might be worth the extra 100 rand
 
Quintus26 said:
I just signed up for fixed LTE. They're dispatching the router. Afrihost emails today and says the price is going up. The 100mbps package that was R599 is going up and will now cost R693 starting June 1st. Lol, what a warm welcome.
Click to expand...
Yeah I am strongly considering canceling my package and going elsewhere. I'm paying R599 (soon R693) for a 100Mbps package that gives 30Mbps on a good day - and there's nothing being done about it. It's been almost a year now that I can't get anything over 30Mpbs, and it's a hard-cap. Day or night, long-time use or coming back from holiday, the speed is always 30Mbps (or less)

So either Afrihost can't do **** about it, or they won't, but they're still choosing to bump the price of this package drastically (almost 16% increase), which isn't worth it for me. There's soon going to be a Vodacom tower less than 400m from my house, so it might be worth completely dropping the network as well.

To give you an idea, a 50Mbps Home Internet Premium package from MTN directly is R619, and then I'm pretty sure I'll get 50Mbps. I don't see why I'm paying Afrihost as a middleman just to say "sorry for the inconvenience" every time I have an issue with the speeds.
 
Toxxyc said:
Yeah I am strongly considering canceling my package and going elsewhere. I'm paying R599 (soon R693) for a 100Mbps package that gives 30Mbps on a good day - and there's nothing being done about it. It's been almost a year now that I can't get anything over 30Mpbs, and it's a hard-cap. Day or night, long-time use or coming back from holiday, the speed is always 30Mbps (or less)

So either Afrihost can't do **** about it, or they won't, but they're still choosing to bump the price of this package drastically (almost 16% increase), which isn't worth it for me. There's soon going to be a Vodacom tower less than 400m from my house, so it might be worth completely dropping the network as well.

To give you an idea, a 50Mbps Home Internet Premium package from MTN directly is R619, and then I'm pretty sure I'll get 50Mbps. I don't see why I'm paying Afrihost as a middleman just to say "sorry for the inconvenience" every time I have an issue with the speeds.
Click to expand...
got the same package from them for few years now also starting to look elsewhere lately the service from them for problems has been pathetic to say the least
 
Toxxyc said:
I'm paying R599 (soon R693) for a 100Mbps package that gives 30Mbps on a good day - and there's nothing being done about it. It's been almost a year now that I can't get anything over 30Mpbs, and it's a hard-cap. Day or night, long-time use or coming back from holiday, the speed is always 30Mbps (or less)
Click to expand...
Same I haven't seen more than 30mbit on that package since August 2025. Also around the time when carrier aggregation got "switched off". I'm throttled to 10-20mbit most of the time. The only thing almost redeeming this package is you have 10mbit between 500GB and 1TB. Feels like MTN is trying their hardest to make the experience on Fixed LTE as painful as possible so that you are forced to switch over to a 5G router.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X