Fibre network operator price comparison - February 2023

[Jan]

Openserve destroyed in South Africa's 2023 fibre price war

Recent changes in South African fibre network operator (FNO) speeds and pricing have made Openserve the most expensive home fibre provider for nearly all line speed categories.

This represents a radical shift from the past two years.

 

[r00igev@@r]

I'll take a 40 Openserve over a 50 Vumatel every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

PS: And ten times any day of the year over a DFA link.

 

[Gaz{M}]

"Destroyed" is a little much for the sake of R20 bucks difference and price isn't the only factor when choosing a fibre provider. They are not all the same in terms of service and reliability.

 

[JayM]

I'll take a 40 Openserve over a 50 Vumatel every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

PS: And ten times any day of the year over a DFA link.

And Frogfoot? What about Frogfoot?!

 

[Insint]

"Destroyed" is a little much for the sake of R20 bucks difference and price isn't the only factor when choosing a fibre provider. They are not all the same in terms of service and reliability.

If it was R21 the word MASSIVE would have been used.

 

[r00igev@@r]

And Frogfoot? What about Frogfoot?!

I'll take Frogfoot once a month with a full carton of Rennies.

 

[BlackStatic]

You pay more for better uptime, it seems, Vuma has been terrible, worse than ADSL here in my area (Vaal). I'd rather pay the same for 100/100 Openserve that's up all the time than 500/500 that sh*ts the bed every day for an hour and sometimes longer.

 

[Wall]

I’d pay R100 more to stay on Openserve. By far the most resilient Fibre network

Price means squat when the other networks are Utter crap

 

[Johand]

Whenever people complain about Vumatel I wonder if it is a regional thing? Here in Cape Town me and my friends have exceptional service. My fibre was damaged once and Vumatel respliced it in 3 hours of me reporting. Another friends whole street fibre was knocked down when CoCT fixed a leaking water mains and cut straight through a fibre bundle with the damage so bad that Vumatel had to blow new fibre and that was done within days. So epic good service from Vumatel in Cape Town... Are we the minority or are there just a couple of bad patches?

 

[Vorastra]

I'll take a 40 Openserve over a 50 Vumatel every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

PS: And ten times any day of the year over a DFA link.

Do you have links to maps of what areas are served with what backhauls?

Like the DFA map for example.

I ask since, my area is served by MFN, but I'm sure they use DFA as the backhaul since there's a main DFA route just down the road and the MFN cabinet is at the top of that same road.

 

[Gadendorff]

Openserve destroyed in South Africa's 2023 fibre price war

Recent changes in South African fibre network operator (FNO) speeds and pricing have made Openserve the most expensive home fibre provider for nearly all line speed categories.

This represents a radical shift from the past two years.

That does not tell the whole story. Openserve lines is of a much better quality, than its competitors. For example my 500 meg openserve is faster than my 1gps frogfoot dfi u cant remem. Openserve just have a much better infrastructure. The way they connect you through your ISP is also 10 times better. They do it much better than the rest. I have been between all the fibre companies since fibre started. Even if Openserve has a significant price increase i would stay with them. 1 gb line from its competitors is never 1gp. I would say if i got 350 meg it was the best they could do. My openserve 500 meg does 480 consistently. So where is the price per mbit now.

 

[Gadendorff]

I’d pay R100 more to stay on Openserve. By far the most resilient Fibre network

Price means squat when the other networks are Utter crap

I wrote the same thing now. In a much more words. Openserve is the king of fibre in sa

 

[Gadendorff]

I’d pay R100 more to stay on Openserve. By far the most resilient Fibre network

Price means squat when the other networks are Utter crap

I wrote the same thing now. In a much more words. Openserve is the king of fibre

And Frogfoot? What about Frogfoot?!

The way openserve connect with youre ISP to youre home is much more advanced and faster. The other fibre companies can not do that.

 

[r00igev@@r]

Do you have links to maps of what areas are served with what backhauls?

Like the DFA map for example.

I ask since, my area is served by MFN, but I'm sure they use DFA as the backhaul since there's a main DFA route just down the road and the MFN cabinet is at the top of that same road.

Coverage — DFA

dfafrica.co.za

 

[Vorastra]

Coverage — DFA

dfafrica.co.za

Yes that's what I was talking about. I was asking if you know of other maps for other companies.

 

[r00igev@@r]

Yes that's what I was talking about. I was asking if you know of other maps for other companies.

These is an billing aggregator named Pindrop that does it across all operators but you need to buy from them:

Home

pindrop.co.za

 

[K3NS31]

Those prices are out of date!
I just got upgraded to 50 down 25 up on the cheapest Openserve package via Cybersmart. (I think a few days ago).

 

[K3NS31]

That does not tell the whole story. Openserve lines is of a much better quality, than its competitors. For example my 500 meg openserve is faster than my 1gps frogfoot dfi u cant remem. Openserve just have a much better infrastructure. The way they connect you through your ISP is also 10 times better. They do it much better than the rest. I have been between all the fibre companies since fibre started. Even if Openserve has a significant price increase i would stay with them. 1 gb line from its competitors is never 1gp. I would say if i got 350 meg it was the best they could do. My openserve 500 meg does 480 consistently. So where is the price per mbit now.

There really shouldn't be any difference - fibre is fibre. It's who you're buying bandwidth from that counts. i.e. Maybe your ISP was just rubbish. Very likely, in fact.

 

[Gudnews]

Whenever people complain about Vumatel I wonder if it is a regional thing? Here in Cape Town me and my friends have exceptional service. My fibre was damaged once and Vumatel respliced it in 3 hours of me reporting. Another friends whole street fibre was knocked down when CoCT fixed a leaking water mains and cut straight through a fibre bundle with the damage so bad that Vumatel had to blow new fibre and that was done within days. So epic good service from Vumatel in Cape Town... Are we the minority or are there just a couple of bad patches?

The general rule with broadband services is that some folks get screwed over, and some don't. Be thankful when you are satisfied with your experience.

 

[Swa]

This does not take into account their entry level options. Also there's much more to costs like connection and installation fees. Vumatel is the most expensive in all regards.