Fibre20.04.2021

South African fibre price war – Uncapped fibre-to-the-home for under R400

South Africa Internet

South Africans can now buy a fast, uncapped fibre-to-the-home service for under R400 per month thanks to speed increases and price cuts from network operators.

The fibre price war in South Africa was started by Openserve when they increased the speeds of their wholesale offerings for free on 1 March 2021.

Openserve upgraded the speed of its 10Mbps, 20Mbps, 50Mbps, and 100Mbps products to 25Mbps, 50Mbps, 100Mbps, and 200Mbps respectively.

The network operator also reduced the price of its 200Mbps product to the previous 100Mbps price.

Openserve said as part of the speed upgrade, there will be no additional costs impacting ISP partners directly.

“We are offering our ISP partners incentives to enable them to easily upgrade their customers,” Openserve said.

Shane Chorley

Frogfoot’s Shane Chorley

Frogfoot followed suit by increasing the speeds of its 10Mbps, 20Mbps, and 50Mbps products to 30Mbps, 50Mbps, and 100Mbps respectively.

Frogfoot’s head of sales and marketing, Shane Chorley, said these changes give Frogfoot subscribers higher speeds at the same price.

These changes also saw the entry-level speed on Frogfoot’s network increase from 10Mbps to 30Mbps.

The next network operator to announce higher speeds and price cuts on its fibre products was Herotel.

The company is improving the value proposition on its 10Mbps, 50Mbps, 100Mbps, and 200Mbps packages.

It has also added new 75Mbps and 1Gbps services to its fibre-to-the-home product range.

Herotel’s entry-level 10Mbps service now sells for R399 per month while its symmetrical 50Mbps product sells for R499 per month.

Herotel CEO Van Zyl Botha told MyBroadband the new pricing and products are made possible by their aerial fibre network.

Van Zyl Botha

Van Zyl Botha, Herotel CEO

Instead of trenching, which is the typical way to deploy fibre to homes, it is building an aerial fibre network.

Botha said this approach allows them to deploy fibre faster and with less disruption to municipal infrastructure and private property.

The latest provider to announce improvements to its fibre offering is MetroFibre, which will increase the speeds of its fibre-to-the-home products from 1 June 2021.

The company has also introduced a new 300Mbps product which will replace its previous top-end 200Mbps service.

As part of the changes, MetroFibre will discontinue its entry-level 10Mbps service and replace it with a 25Mbps product.

Afrihost CEO Gian Visser

Afrihost CEO Gian Visser

The wholesale changes from Openserve and Frogfoot quickly filtered down to consumers in the form of higher speeds and lower prices.

Afrihost was the first to react to the price changes by increasing the speed of its Openserve fibre subscribers for free.

Afrihost CEO Gian Visser said the bill for their 200Mbps fibre clients was also automatically reduced by R380 per month from 1 March.

The ISP has further slashed the price of its Frogfoot fibre products with uncapped packages starting at under R500 per month.

Existing clients will automatically be upgraded to the new speed in a phased approach during the month of May 2021.

Afrihost added that new subscribers can save up to R5,000 on setup costs with free activation and a free Wi-Fi router thrown in.

Telkom fibre promotion

Telkom fibre promotion

Other ISPs, including Telkom, Webafrica, and Mweb, followed suit with entry-level uncapped fibre prices dropping to below R400 per month.

Telkom, for example, is currently running a promotion offering a 25/5Mbps uncapped fibre service for R399 per month.

Webafrica, in turn, is offering a 25/10Mbps service over Openserve’s network for R399 per month for the rest of the year. This is down from the usual R599 per month.

This is the first time South Africans can subscribe to an uncapped 25Mbps fibre service for below R400 per month.

The table below provides an overview of the latest fibre-to-the-home promotions and price cuts from prominent ISPs.

Fibre Prices in South Africa
ISP Fibre Provider Download Speed Upload Speed Price
Herotel Herotel 10Mbps 10Mbps R399
Webafrica Metrofibre 10Mbps 10Mbps R499
Webafrica Openserve 25Mbps 10Mbps R399
Telkom Openserve 25Mbps 5Mbps R399
Telkom Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R449
Mweb Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R499
Home Connect Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R588
RSAWEB Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R595
Afrihost Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R597
Cool Ideas Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R599
Axxess Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R645
Supersonic Openserve 25Mbps 25Mbps R699
Webafrica Frogfoot 30Mbps 2Mbps R399
Afrihost Frogfoot 30Mbps 3Mbps R497
Afrihost Frogfoot 30Mbps 30Mbps R597
Herotel Herotel 50Mbps 50Mbps R499
Webafrica Frogfoot 50Mbps 4Mbps R609
Afrihost Frogfoot 50Mbps 5Mbps R697
Telkom Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R699
Webafrica Openserve 50Mbps 10Mbps R699
Mweb Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R739
Home Connect Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R788
RSAWEB Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R795
Afrihost Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R797
Afrihost Frogfoot 50Mbps 50Mbps R797
Axxess Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R805
Cool Ideas Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R819
Supersonic Openserve 50Mbps 25Mbps R849
Webafrica Frogfoot 100Mbps 5Mbps R749
Afrihost Frogfoot 100Mbps 10Mbps R797
Webafrica Openserve 100Mbps 20Mbps R799
Herotel Herotel 100Mbps 100Mbps R849
Afrihost Frogfoot 100Mbps 100Mbps R897
Telkom Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R899
Mweb Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R899
Afrihost Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R917
Home Connect Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R928
Axxess Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R935
RSAWEB Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R995
Cool Ideas Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R999
Supersonic Openserve 100Mbps 50Mbps R1,049
Webafrica Frogfoot 200Mbps 15Mbps R849
Webafrica Openserve 200Mbps 40Mbps R899
Afrihost Frogfoot 200Mbps 200Mbps R997
Herotel Herotel 200Mbps 200Mbps R999
Mweb Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,049
Afrihost Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,117
Home Connect Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,128
Axxess Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,135
Telkom Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,169
Supersonic Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,195
Cool Ideas Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,199
RSAWEB Openserve 200Mbps 100Mbps R1,295
Webafrica Frogfoot 500Mbps 50Mbps R949
Afrihost Frogfoot 500Mbps 500Mbps R1,297
RSAWEB Vumatel 1Gbps 100Mbps R1,495
Axxess Vumatel 1Gbps 100Mbps R1,495
Afrihost Vumatel 1Gbps 100Mbps R1,497
Afrihost Frogfoot 1Gbps 1Gbps R1,497
Herotel Herotel 1Gbps 1Gbps R1,499
Mweb Vumatel 1Gbps 100Mbps R1,499
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