Fibre Comparison UK v SA

[markanderl]

Now I cannot get Fibre as it is not available where I live but I have recently come back to SA from the UK and am astounded by the difference in pricing. I saw Vodacom have been advertising uncapped Fibre for R499 per month for a 10mbs line. I then went and looked at Vodafone (the same company as Vodacom-Vodafone owns Vodacom) deals in the UK and they are R520pm (28 pounds) for uncapped and speeds of 63mbs.
I then looked at Virgin broadband(Fibre), which we used in the UK, and found unlimited downloads (uncapped) for R665 (35 pounds) per month with a line speed of 362mbs. Telkom are R1699 for a 200mbs line speed and capped at 600gb.
The same applies to data via LTE or any data for that matter
I cannot get my head around why South Africans are being completely ripped off, the only conclusion I can come to is that the SA public allows this. Now I know no one will ever boycott any service provider because the internet has become such a needed entity that most people and companies who have it cannot do without it so we do nothing, in fact most people cannot go without WhatsApp or Facebook for than 30 seconds
Personally I think it is disgusting how the SA population are being exploited like this.
I have attached screenshots of these UK deals

 

[Wasabee!]

You need to consider the cost of doing business in SA and that most FTTH networks are only about 3-5 years old, so the infrastructure hasn't even paid itself off.

This is also got to do with us being at the bottom of a dark continent, so we need to also buy submarine and terrestrial capacity and not just connect to the local cables. Also do you realise that SA is a large country compared to the UK? Connecting towns is also easier there as you don't have to trench or buy capacity of sometimes hundreds of Km before you get any significant metro again.

Also they don't have vandalism and other factors. They're different markets.

 

[MirageF1]

^^^ This

 

[cavedog]

For the sake of transparency let's list all the prices and not just the cheapest UK fibre deals vs the most expensive fibre deals in SA.

Just like in the UK different providers different cable providers all have different prices and availability.

If you are covered by Vumatel you have the option of 1Gbps download speed and 100Mbps upload speed which is priced at around R1499. That is 79.18 GBP at the current exchange rate. Comparing that to the Virgin media fibre in your screen shot that is more than double the speed for double the price.

Take note of the * next to the broadband speeds in the UK. They are averages based on this.



That means that you may have a 500Mbps line in the UK but during peak at least 50% of their customers get that average speed so if you fall on the other part of the average you get less. If anything that seems worse than any deal in SA when you have a 1Gbps line you can expect close to that line speeds.

South Africa is quite far from Europe and the US. Transit to these regions is significantly more expensive than what the UK pays for transit into Europe and US. The UK is a developed country where South Africa is a developing country. They have the 6th largest economy in the world.

If you look at what we have for fibre and the prices they compare favorably to other developed countries.

 

[clickingbuttons]

For the sake of transparency let's list all the prices and not just the cheapest UK fibre deals vs the most expensive fibre deals in SA.

Just like in the UK different providers different cable providers all have different prices and availability.

If you are covered by Vumatel you have the option of 1Gbps download speed and 100Mbps upload speed which is priced at around R1499. That is 79.18 GBP at the current exchange rate. Comparing that to the Virgin media fibre in your screen shot that is more than double the speed for double the price.

Take note of the * next to the broadband speeds in the UK. They are averages based on this.

View attachment 745997

That means that you may have a 500Mbps line in the UK but during peak at least 50% of their customers get that average speed so if you fall on the other part of the average you get less. If anything that seems worse than any deal in SA when you have a 1Gbps line you can expect close to that line speeds.

South Africa is quite far from Europe and the US. Transit to these regions is significantly more expensive than what the UK pays for transit into Europe and US. The UK is a developed country where South Africa is a developing country. They have the 6th largest economy in the world.

If you look at what we have for fibre and the prices they compare favorably to other developed countries.

I've never 1gbit anywhere but in a speedtest. Maybe I suck at downloading