South Africa's biggest FTTH networks share achievements and challenges in 2023

Interesting to note Vuma has 73% more homes passed than Openserve but only 22% more customers. Bad business model. Sorry Vuma, you're not getting anywhere until you stop excluding your customers.
 
Zoom Fibre introduced a package with 15Mbps speeds starting at under R300.
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I'd go for this especially if symmetrical, rather than what I have available :

Frogfoot 40/10 (soon to be 60/30) currently (the 40/10 is) at a minimum of R557 - R570, but over R600 at most ISPs ;

Frogfoot Air - apparently I can get it where I am (10/1 for around R300 or 20/2 about R400), but too restrictive - pre-supplied router that covers only 100m sq. you can't add to, to make a mesh system.

Surprised it's offered if the house is bigger than that.
 
Swa said:
Interesting to note Vuma has 73% more homes passed than Openserve but only 22% more customers. Bad business model. Sorry Vuma, you're not getting anywhere until you stop excluding your customers.
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The baseline product is too expensive. Simple as that.
 
Swa said:
Interesting to note Vuma has 73% more homes passed than Openserve but only 22% more customers. Bad business model. Sorry Vuma, you're not getting anywhere until you stop excluding your customers.
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Cheapest vuma: R730
Cheapest openserve: R550
 
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BCR said:
I'd go for this especially if symmetrical, rather than what I have available :

Frogfoot 40/10 (soon to be 60/30) currently (the 40/10 is) at a minimum of R557 - R570, but over R600 at most ISPs ;

Frogfoot Air - apparently I can get it where I am (10/1 for around R300 or 20/2 about R400), but too restrictive - pre-supplied router that covers only 100m sq. you can't add to, to make a mesh system.

Surprised it's offered if the house is bigger than that.
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Extenders?
 
Swa said:
Extenders?
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For the Air products, my understanding is you cannot mess around with the original setup ; don't know if using range extenders would be picked up by them, but I believe they don't work well anyway.

Might be worth the try for the few hundred ZAR they each cost, if one went for it.
 
BCR said:
For the Air products, my understanding is you cannot mess around with the original setup ; don't know if using range extenders would be picked up by them, but I believe they don't work well anyway.

Might be worth the try for the few hundred ZAR they each cost, if one went for it.
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An extender just connects to the wifi in the normal way and forwards all requests. It's how most mesh systems work unless you plug directly into the router.
 
For some reason Afrihost and Axxess have a 25/25 Vumatel option for R449 at my address but it's not in the general products. Afrihost calls it Vuma Promo while Axxess just calls it Fibre by Vuma with no mention it's only for a promotional period. @AfriGuy can someone confirm what this is?
 
@Hanno Labuschagne

Unfortunately we starting to see Fibre links get sabotaged(repeatedly). One particular Fibre(OpenServe) trunk line gets sabotaged at the same spot every 4 - 6 months.

Usually Friday morning around 1AM - 2AM it gets cut. Assessor comes through on Friday 10AM - 11AM and calculates how much new fibre is required to repair trunk link. New fibre is installed starting Friday late afternoon and splicing starts immediately thereafter.

...I would be speculating that workers earn overtime on weekends to repair said Fibre link.

My apologies for slight thread derailment, its just we starting to see more and more of this situation playing out.
 
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Swa said:
For some reason Afrihost and Axxess have a 25/25 Vumatel option for R449 at my address but it's not in the general products. Afrihost calls it Vuma Promo while Axxess just calls it Fibre by Vuma with no mention it's only for a promotional period. @AfriGuy can someone confirm what this is?
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Hi.
It is only available to strategic areas.
 
Afrigirl said:
Hi.
It is only available to strategic areas.
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I gathered that but is it permanent or can the price change while subscribed? If it's a permanent product or standard price for some areas it can't really be called a promotion.

My guess is Vuma realised the error in their business model of treating middle class suburbs the same as rich ones and is now introducing something similar to Vuma Reach.
 
Swa said:
Interesting to note Vuma has 73% more homes passed than Openserve but only 22% more customers. Bad business model. Sorry Vuma, you're not getting anywhere until you stop excluding your customer
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Sapphiron said:
The baseline product is too expensive. Simple as that.
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South Africans are a conservative bunch they tend to go what's familiar rather than something new. They rather wait for a "more trust worthy company" (they actually mean a company they've known all their lives) than try a new company.

For many Vumatel sounds too much like BBE-atel so they'll wait for a company they've heard of, Openserve comes in and they recognise the name from the sticker on Telkom vehicles and the Telkom boxes, a name they recognise.

This is basically why Vumas penetration is low even when they were the only game in town.
 
Polymathic said:
South Africans are a conservative bunch they tend to go what's familiar rather than something new. They rather wait for a "more trust worthy company" (they actually mean a company they've known all their lives) than try a new company.

For many Vumatel sounds too much like BBE-atel so they'll wait for a company they've heard of, Openserve comes in and they recognise the name from the sticker on Telkom vehicles and the Telkom boxes, a name they recognise.

This is basically why Vumas penetration is low even when they were the only game in town.
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They are the most expensive. If they launched with R300 fibre they would have overtaken the market. Remember Openserve was unknown and it was part of the problem people mentioned in getting uptake. They don't use both brandings so people had to become familiar with the name. Maybe Vumatel is now waking up to the reality.
 
Swa said:
They are the most expensive. If they launched with R300 fibre they would have overtaken the market. Remember Openserve was unknown and it was part of the problem people mentioned in getting uptake. They don't use both brandings so people had to become familiar with the name. Maybe Vumatel is now waking up to the reality.
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I got Openserve early in 2021 (first FNO in my area), and I briefly switched to MetroFiber in March 2023. I got spoilt by the stability and reliability of Openserve and naively expected the same of MetroFiber. MF couldn't provide the speed they advertised and I paid for, and they were offline for a significant period in the same month I installed my Sunsynk system and CBI Astute for my geyser. I had to use a backup LTE system to prevent cold showers. After a month of crap support from AH I cancelled and switched back to Openserve. I paid the R999 "penalty" for early cancellation with AH with a smile.

OS is competitively priced, and rock solid. I have noticed this, though it usually lasts for a couple of hours until its fixed.
 
Swa said:
I gathered that but is it permanent or can the price change while subscribed? If it's a permanent product or standard price for some areas it can't really be called a promotion.

My guess is Vuma realised the error in their business model of treating middle class suburbs the same as rich ones and is now introducing something similar to Vuma Reach.
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Hi

It's a promo package that can change at any time. If there are any changes we will communicate to clients that are affected in advance.
 
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ronz91 said:
It is symmetrical. Paying 269 for my 15/15.
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Would be perfect, but Frogfoot don't offer anything in that range (price + comparable speed) for trenched fibre.

"Air" also not as good.
 
BCR said:
Would be perfect, but Frogfoot don't offer anything in that range (price + comparable speed) for trenched fibre.

"Air" also not as good.
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Yeah I was surprised when they launched this. As the article says, seems like they are targeting lower end households. Hopefully this prompts other providers to follow.
 
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