Fibre non-data (i.e. line) prices? (esp Metrofibre)

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Zook

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Hi all,

I see there are fairly large price differences in the data + line total prices between various providers. Metrofibre is likely to be working in our area soon and I'd like to understand what the non-data portion of their pricing is. I.e. what do they charge a service provider for my line?

It'll be easy to change data providers, but nigh-impossible to change line providers. So the line part of the price seems to be a critical part of the overall long-term cost in an area.

Is there a difference between the physical fibre providers' prices? What is the range? E.g. should we hold out for another provider, or is it not a big component of the overall pricing?

(Telkom sucked all the profits out of the ADSL market even though the data providers all competed as hard as they could. The data was cheap, the line rental ridiculous. Let's not have that happen again.)

Price difference examples:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/fibre...fibre-to-the-home-prices-in-south-africa.html
 
I don't mind what the numbers are, just whether there is a big difference in wholesale and whether it's warranted. I don't mind paying for quality, but I'd prefer not to get shafted just because I'm locked into one line provider and they don't feel like they need to compete.

So a reply with e.g. "there's a 50% price difference between providers, Metrofibre is near the top" or "almost no price difference" or "most of the cost is data" or...fill in your useful sentence here. Please help to understand the market :)

I've had awesome private info shared before that was used to help me set up e.g. my LTE aerial. I don't see the downside in sharing, unless a company is nailing us on the pricing.
 
Zook said:
Hi all,

I see there are fairly large price differences in the data + line total prices between various providers. Metrofibre is likely to be working in our area soon and I'd like to understand what the non-data portion of their pricing is. I.e. what do they charge a service provider for my line?

It'll be easy to change data providers, but nigh-impossible to change line providers. So the line part of the price seems to be a critical part of the overall long-term cost in an area.

Is there a difference between the physical fibre providers' prices? What is the range? E.g. should we hold out for another provider, or is it not a big component of the overall pricing?

(Telkom sucked all the profits out of the ADSL market even though the data providers all competed as hard as they could. The data was cheap, the line rental ridiculous. Let's not have that happen again.)

Price difference examples:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/fibre...fibre-to-the-home-prices-in-south-africa.html
Click to expand...

Well there is many factors
Depends on
1. The area? Location, distance between customers. Layout of the land
2. The uptake in the area
3. Cost of interconnects / back haul?
4. What each provider model for recovery of investment is? If it is long term, the rental cost will be less.
5. What is the maintenance like in the area?
6. Municipal restrictions and issues.
7. The cost to install the fibre in an area.

etc.
 
Thanks MsTL. Most of those would be area-specific, though, so the only differentiator between line providers would be #4, the model for recovery for investment? In which case I think Metrofibre is good, since they're meant to be considering this as a utility (long-term recovery). My other impression is that they're solid and likely to be more responsive than e.g. Telkom. However...I'm just guessing wildly based on what I've read about them.
 
In case anyone is interested in this, here's an obvious and simple enough way to get a rough idea of the underlying data costs: Compare one data provider's prices on multiple fibre providers.

E.g.:
https://www.cisp.co.za/ftth/
https://www.cisp.co.za/ftth/metrofibre-residential/
https://www.cisp.co.za/ftth/fibrehoods-residential/
https://www.cisp.co.za/ftth/vumatel-residential/

Whatever the reasons for the differences, you can gauge that in the absence of other information, this provider can get you a better price over X's fibre than Y's (or not, or whatever). It may be that there are subtleties to the pricing that aren't exposed in this one data point, but we'd only know if we have multiple data providers with service over the same fibre providers, and who have comparable data.
 
Zook said:
Thanks MsTL. Most of those would be area-specific, though, so the only differentiator between line providers would be #4, the model for recovery for investment? In which case I think Metrofibre is good, since they're meant to be considering this as a utility (long-term recovery). My other impression is that they're solid and likely to be more responsive than e.g. Telkom. However...I'm just guessing wildly based on what I've read about them.
Click to expand...

Our wholesale pricing is also not area specific, and remains the same as an input cost to the ISP regardless of the TT Connect fibre suburb.
 
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