Broadband price benchmarks reveal good news about South Africa’s tariffs

Point Topic has released its Global Q2 2020 broadband tariff benchmark report which revealed that the average price for a fibre connection decreased by 4.9% over the last six months.

The average subscription of copper-based broadband services – ADSL and VDSL – increased by 1.4%.

Driven by the lower cost of fibre, the average monthly charge for residential broadband services overall fell by 2.2% and stood at R1,577 ($91).

The average residential broadband speed increased by 17% between Q4 2019 and Q2 2020, driven mainly by higher fibre and cable speeds.

The average download speeds over cable increased by 23.8% while the average download speeds over fibre grew by 11.1%.

The chart below shows the average cost and download speeds for the three main fixed broadband technologies – copper, cable, and fibre.

Average cost per Mbps

In Q2 2020, the combined average cost per Mbps on broadband packages provided over the three technologies – DSL, cable, and fibre – has dropped by 17.5% to $0.33.

This fall was caused by the drop in the average cost per Mbps of all three technologies: -15.6% for cable, -11.8% for fibre, and -3.9% for copper.

In terms of the cost per Mbps, copper remains by far the most expensive technology.

The table below provides an overview of the average cost per Mbps for fixed broadband services across the world.

South African broadband prices benchmarked

Point Topic said the Middle East and Africa, where operators are focusing on mobile markets and technologies, had the lowest average fixed broadband download speed at 63Mbps.

Due to the limited supply of fixed broadband, it was also the most expensive region with an average price per Mbps of R45.60 ($2.63).

To see how South Africa’s DSL and fibre prices compare to global standards, MyBroadband used Afrihost’s Pure Fibre and Pure DSL uncapped products.

The results showed that South Africa’s DSL prices are much more affordable than the global average. Local fibre prices are on par with global averages.

This may come as a surprise to many people who believe South Africa’s broadband prices are far more expensive than global standards.

The table below provides an overview of how South Africa’s fibre and DSL prices compare with global standards, measured in price per Mbps.

Now read: South Africa now has the third-cheapest broadband prices in the world