Big Vumatel price cuts

After calls from its customers to drop prices, fibre network operator Vumatel has adjusted its fibre-to-the-home product line-up, resulting in big price cuts from Internet service providers (ISPs) on its network.

Vumatel told MyBroadband it had reviewed and adjusted a number of products to simplify its product offerings in line with ISP feedback.

However, it said it was not legally at liberty to discuss pricing in the open market, as ISPs were responsible for communicating retail price points to the market.

“This may or may not affect how ISPs price their products for end-users, as retail prices are set by the ISPs themselves,” Vumatel stated.

Two major fibre ISPs — Afrihost and Cool Ideas — have confirmed the price changes after a reader notified MyBroadband about the adjustments.

Starting from 1 July, the 10Mbps/10Mbps entry-level package on Vumatel will be discontinued and replaced with a 20Mbps/10Mbps product.

The 50Mbps, 100Mbps, 200Mbps packages are now only offered at symmetrical speeds.

At the top-end, the 1Gbps/200Mbps package has become a permanent offer, while a new 1,000Mbps/500Mbps package has also been added.

Vumatel’s pricing adjustments come after other major fibre network operators – including Openserve, Frogfoot, MetroFibre, Herotel, and Octotel implemented free speed upgrades and price cuts over the last few months.

A quick comparison of the old and new prices on Afrihost showed that the price cuts were significant.

For example, Afrihost’s previous cheapest offering on Vumatel’s network was the 10Mbps/10Mbps line at R749 per month.

This will now be replaced by the 20Mbps/10Mbps package at R697 per month, a saving of R52 while getting double the download speed.

The 50Mbps/50Mbps, and 100Mbps/100Mbps are more than R200 cheaper, while the 200Mbps/200Mbps product has been slashed by R350.

The table below shows the old and new speeds and pricing for Afrihost and Cool Ideas fibre packages on Vumatel’s network.

Now read: Big speed increases for Octotel fibre customers