Fibre-to-the-home price comparison - Vumatel and Octotel join the price war

[Jan]

Fibre price war — Vumatel and Octotel join the fight

Fibre network operators and Internet service providers (ISPs) in South Africa have slashed the price of fibre-to-the-home products in recent months.

Openserve started the price war in March when it upgraded speeds and cut prices on its fibre products. These changes came at no additional cost to its ISP partners.

Many fibre network operators followed, including Frogfoot, MetroFibre, and Herotel — increasing the speeds and cutting the prices of their fibre products.

Frogfoot permanently increased the line speeds of fibre packages of 50Mbps and below shortly after Openserve’s announcement.

 

[Dlamaqhinga]

Thanks to Openserve

 

[chickenbeef]

The R50 saving and double download speed (I'm on the 10Mb package) is welcome but the prices are still high compared to the competitors.

 

[Budza]

35D/25U=
R100 less
5Mbps less upload
5Mbps more download

Moving down from old 30MB package.

I guess I'll be auto adjusted to the 50MB package for next month. I'll drop to the base package from there.

Nice. Competition = GOOD!

 

[eddief1]

Why no Herotel pricing? Guess it exposes the other FNO's greed.

 

[SeaSickMama]

Yet MFN is still the most expensive......

 

[randomcat]

 

[Reaper1242]

And here I am, stuck in a complex with Vodacom. Sorry for me.

 

[Hackson]

1000Mbps for R1K is welcome. I think I can now pay Xbox games remotely. Not shooters but definitely stories.

 

[Swa]

I'm sure when Vumatel increased prices last year they thought it would be the standard oligopolistic behaviour and didn't bet on Operserve driving competition.

 

[qinglung]

So what's happening with Link Africa? No announcements

MetroFibre apparently acquired them, but not a peep regarding this or any changes in speed or price.

 

[Gudnews]

Just when I thought fibre was too expensive for me, it's Afrihost to the rescue!

 

[The Magster]

Any mention of MWEB anywhere and what they're getting up to? Probably will increase their prices!!!

 

[AirWolf]

What's the best bang for buck 1Gbps package?

Frogfoot dug the hell out of our local municipality "prioritising" Fibre over water, electricity or anything else that was already in the ground.

 

[John Wick]

Hi

Thanks for this article but after reading this I checked Vumatels prices with other ISP's and they are still more expensive, especially against Openserve.

I thought Vumatel was created to be a direct competitor in price and service to Openserve and both Vumatel and Openserve dominate the market when it comes to fibre.
Yet, Vumatel still seems to be more expensive.

I hope Vumatel re-looks at their prices vs fibre speeds. Octatel responded well to this price war.

I feel that Vumatel is using the pandemic to try and milk as much money as possible, instead of helping the people during this time by making fibre cheaper so it's more affordable and people have access to faster speeds as it is more needed now that people are working from home.

 

[netstrider]

Hi

Thanks for this article but after reading this I checked Vumatels prices with other ISP's and they are still more expensive, especially against Openserve.

I thought Vumatel was created to be a direct competitor in price and service to Openserve and both Vumatel and Openserve dominate the market when it comes to fibre.
Yet, Vumatel still seems to be more expensive.

I hope Vumatel re-looks at their prices vs fibre speeds. Octatel responded well to this price war.

I feel that Vumatel is using the pandemic to try and milk as much money as possible, instead of helping the people during this time by making fibre cheaper so it's more affordable and people have access to faster speeds as it is more needed now that people are working from home.

Those prices on the Cool Ideas website are obsolete as of 1st of July.

Granted, they are more expensive still than Afrihost but their prices have come down.

 

[rh1]

Price comparison for Vumatel. Thanks to: @Sharkssmart1

 

[Swa]

Hi

Thanks for this article but after reading this I checked Vumatels prices with other ISP's and they are still more expensive, especially against Openserve.

I thought Vumatel was created to be a direct competitor in price and service to Openserve and both Vumatel and Openserve dominate the market when it comes to fibre.
Yet, Vumatel still seems to be more expensive.

I hope Vumatel re-looks at their prices vs fibre speeds. Octatel responded well to this price war.

I feel that Vumatel is using the pandemic to try and milk as much money as possible, instead of helping the people during this time by making fibre cheaper so it's more affordable and people have access to faster speeds as it is more needed now that people are working from home.

They'll continue to be expensive as they accumulated a lot of debt with a lot of projects without a clear business plan to recoup it all.

 

[The Magster]

Due to financial constraints - these exist! - I am on the 10 down/10 up fibre package via Mweb/Vumatel at R689 per month for quite some time now. I am thankful that as from 1 August 2021 the speed will be 20 down/10 up at no extra cost...for now! Just today 30/6/2021 received an email stating this. Guess someday soon the price will increase again when a reason is made up, uh, found for this to occur.

 

[AirWolf]

Due to financial constraints - these exist! - I am on the 10 down/10 up fibre package via Mweb/Vumatel at R689 per month for quite some time now. I am thankful that as from 1 August 2021 the speed will be 20 down/10 up at no extra cost...for now! Just today 30/6/2021 received an email stating this. Guess someday soon the price will increase again when a reason is made up, uh, found for this to occur.

That is pricy - I see other's have 30 up and down for around R699 or less.