South Africa’s cheapest fibre Internet — From R99 to R500 per month

The most affordable FTTH plans in South Africa start at R99 per month, but more generally available packages are typically priced around R500, a MyBroadband analysis found.

In recent years, several major fibre network operators (FNOs) have launched specialised products to cater to the rising demand for affordable connectivity in lower-income areas.

South Africa’s largest FNO Vumatel offers the cheapest FTTH service on a monthly basis through its Vuma Key product, which is available from several Internet service providers (ISPs) for R99 per month.

The service provides users with uncapped data at 10Mbps download speeds and 5Mbps upload speeds in townships and informal settlements.

Vuma Key’s biggest competitor is Fibertime, which sells uncapped fibre access at up to 100Mbps for R5 per day per user or R10 a day for a household, working out to R150 or R300 per month, respectively.

Both these services have recently expanded significantly in townships. Openserve, MetroFibre, and Frogfoot also offer dedicated low-cost services with prices starting under R300 per month.

These products are commendable for helping bring affordable connectivity to the less affluent, many of whom previously relied on capped mobile data plans.

The geographical layout of housing in their typical coverage areas is key to enabling these packages’ low costs.

A much higher population density makes it possible to connect multiple homes with much less cable and supporting equipment than would be necessary for freestanding homes in suburbia.

Even in complexes and multi-household properties, homes are not located as close together as in many townships in South Africa. With the higher rollout cost comes a higher price tag.

However, despite continued increases in FTTH prices for these customers in recent years, it is still possible to get a sub-R500 plan on most major networks.

Cheapest fibre for people in suburbia

MyBroadband searched for the most affordable FTTH packages that are more generally available than the specialised low-cost offerings across the six largest fibre networks in the country.

We considered pricing from nine major ISPs in our analysis — Afrihost, Axxess, Cool Ideas, Mweb, RSAWeb, Supersonic, Telkom, Webafrica, and Vox.

We disregarded limited-period discounted rates that only applied for the first few months of a subscription.

For example, at the time of our analysis, Webafrica was offering the entry-level Vuma Core 30/30Mbps package for R419 per month for the first two months.

However, thereafter, the price increases to R519, making it more expensive than Afrihost, Axxess, Cool Ideas, Vox, and Telkom.

Telkom technically had the cheapest price on Vumatel fibre, charging R495 per month. However, it charges R2,733 once-off for installation.

Other Internet service providers (ISPs) don’t charge any additional fees for installation. However, unlike Telkom, they levy a cancellation penalty if a customer cancels within a few months.

On Telkom Group’s own FNO Openserve, Afrihost was the cheapest, at R497 per month, followed closely by Axxess and Telkom itself, with fees of R499 per month.

Overall, we found that most entry-level FTTH products in South Africa that were not limited to lower-income areas were priced around R500 and offered speeds between 25Mbps and 30Mbps.

Frogfoot was the exception. Its entry-level 60/30Mbps plans were priced near R700 at the three most affordable ISPs.

Cheapest FTTH outside townships in South Africa

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