BMIT releases SA Broadband Report 2023

Jan

Jan

Who's the Boss?
Staff member
Joined
May 24, 2010
Messages
13,510
Reaction score
11,157
Location
The Rabbit Hole
South Africa's fibre and 5G war

Fibre and 5G fixed wireless access providers are in an escalating battle for customers as key players in both technologies invest in expanding their coverage. This is according to BMIT’s latest SA Broadband Report.

BMIT managing director Chris Geerdts says investment in residential fibre in recent years has been unprecedented, although a few large players did take a breather in 2023.
 
"OneWeb services are available in South Africa via BCX and QKon, but priced for maximum gouging"
FIFY
 
  • Like
Reactions: Swa
My 5g s22+ goes the same speed on 5g or upgraded 3g (can't remember the name they gave it) LTE (that's it) long term evolution of 3g.. Cos we never did ever have 4g did we.. That was a bs story too, now they say AI on s24 hmm I wonder.. Sales gimmick I think.. What do you others think/say about this?
 
Deandbn said:
My 5g s22+ goes the same speed on 5g or upgraded 3g (can't remember the name they gave it) LTE (that's it) long term evolution of 3g.. Cos we never did ever have 4g did we.. That was a bs story too, now they say AI on s24 hmm I wonder.. Sales gimmick I think.. What do you others think/say about this?
Click to expand...
All 5G in this country works on a LTE uplink so not much use ito speed. 5G NSA is also limited ito latency as it uses the 4G core. It's only with true 5G or 5G SA that you will see a difference that can compete with fibre.
 
Speed, while important, is secondary to capacity quota (at least in my books). I'd rather have uncapped 3G than fast 5G with low data caps. And this is the same reason why fibre wins this "war" also. Fibre deals (analogous to DSL) usually offer bigger caps or uncapped data for a fraction of the price that the mobile providers are offering, so for data-heavy users it's usually a no-brainer to get fibre instead of fixed mobile broadband as the deals are better value and the FUP's less aggressive/painful to deal with. This will likely balance out in future, and in that case mobile will become more attractive, but by that stage we'll have an even better national fibre footprint with even better fibre deals, and for many people better price/"value for money" is really all it takes to "win the war"
 
This must be why the fibre prices are going up.....because they want more customers and be more competitive.... :|
The lower price options are typically limited to first time fibre subscribers and usually for a limited time period.
Seems the fibre FNO's are squeezing every cent out of customers by bumping up the speed and price at the same time all while removing the option to keep your existing speed/price.
i.e 50./50 is now being bumped to 75/75 at a higher price with the 75/75 now being the minimum speed and price package. (at least with Octotel/mweb)
R850 a month is now the minimum price unless you're a new fibre sub. Which seems a little steep to be the minimum.
Makes some of the 3g/5G options more attractive, at least in my use case.
 
Swa said:
All 5G in this country works on a LTE uplink so not much use ito speed. 5G NSA is also limited ito latency as it uses the 4G core. It's only with true 5G or 5G SA that you will see a difference that can compete with fibre.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your confirmation, so we still on 3gLTE that's what I thought.. Sad hey.. And.. When they now go on about AI, if you look carefully behind the curtains back in the shadows you'll be certain to see someone still winding the rubber bands up by hand.. Lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter