Frogfoot and Octotel hike prices and increase fibre speeds
Fibre network operators Frogfoot and Octotel have made price and speed changes to their wholesale fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages.
Frogfoot increased speeds on most of its packages sold to Internet service providers (ISPs), effective 1 February 2023.
It said the increases aimed to adequately cater for the increasing online data consumption needs of smart devices and the explosion of devices each home has that contend for the same bandwidth.
“This change was long overdue following our previous double-up promotion, back in May 2021, where we moved most clients to the next available speed combination,” Frogfoot said.
“We have introduced different speed combinations this time around and bumped up the upload speed proportionally to the download speed for asymmetrical packages.”
Frogfoot’s entry-level asymmetrical package now comes with a 40Mbps download and 10Mbps upload speed.
This will replace both the symmetrical and asymmetrical 10Mbps packages and asymmetrical 20Mbps and 30Mbps packages.
The symmetrical 20Mbps and 30Mbps products have been increased to symmetrical 40Mbps speeds.
Most of Frogfoot’s higher-end packages are also getting substantial speed increases.
The download speeds of the 50Mbps packages have been upgraded to 80Mbps, 100Mbps increased to 150Mbps, and 200Mbps bumped to 250Mbps.
These packages have also received an upload speed upgrade.
In addition, the upload speeds of Frogfoot’s asymmetrical 500Mbps and 1Gbps products have been doubled to 100Mbps and 200Mbps, respectively.
The table below summarises the speed changes on Frogfoot’s FTTH network.
Frogfoot FTTH speed changes | |||
Old speeds | New speeds | ||
Download | Upload | Download | Upload |
10Mbps | 5Mbps | 40Mbps | 10Mbps |
10Mbps | 10Mbps | ||
20Mbps | 2Mbps | ||
30Mbps | 3Mbps | ||
20Mbps | 20Mbps | 40Mbps | 40Mbps |
30Mbps | 30Mbps | ||
50Mbps | 5Mbps | 80Mbps | 20Mbps |
50Mbps | 50Mbps | 80Mbps | 80Mbps |
100Mbps | 10Mbps | 150Mbps | 30Mbps |
100Mbps | 100Mbps | 150Mbps | 150Mbps |
200Mbps | 20Mbps | 250Mbps | 50Mbps |
200Mbps | 200Mbps | 250Mbps | 250Mbps |
500Mbps | 50Mbps | 500Mbps | 100Mbps |
500Mbps | 500Mbps | 500Mbps | 500Mbps |
1,000Mbps | 100Mbps | 1,000Mbps | 200Mbps |
1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps |
Frogfoot said the changes were implemented with an inflationary increase to the wholesale price charged to ISPs.
It explained it had not raised prices since May 2021 and had been absorbing increases in electricity and other supplier costs that had taken effect since that time.
ISPs will have to decide whether to increase the prices in accordance with the wholesale hike to maintain their profit margins or absorb the cost.
A support agent for Afrihost, one of the country’s biggest fibre ISPs, said they chose to absorb the cost.
As a result, its Frogfoot packages now have the new speeds but keep their old pricing, as shown in the table below.
Afrihost FTTH prices on Frogfoot network | ||
Old speeds | New speeds | Price |
30/3Mbps | 40/10Mbps | R527 |
30/30Mbps | 40/40Mbps | R627 |
50/5Mbps | 80/20Mbps | R727 |
50/50Mbps | 80/80Mbps | R827 |
100/10Mbps | 150/30Mbps | R827 |
100/100Mbps | 150/150Mbps | R927 |
200/200Mbps | 250/250Mbps | R1,047 |
500/500Mbps | 500/500Mbps | R1,347 |
1,000/1,000Mbps | 1,000/1,000Mbps | R1,547 |
Octotel has increased the ISP wholesale prices of three of its packages while also permanently increasing the speeds of products that have been on promotion since November 2022.
The 35/25Mbps package has been bumped up to 50/50Mbps at an additional R50 cost to ISPs.
The 50/50Mbps and 100/100Mbps packages have been increased to 100/100Mbps and 200/200Mbps, respectively, each with a wholesale price hike of R60.
In addition, the 200/200Mbps package is getting double the download speed at no extra charge to ISPs.
The entry-level 25/25Mbps and top-end 1,000/200Mbps packages will remain as is.
Price adjustments for end-users will depend on their relevant ISP, who may hike monthly fees or decide to absorb the additional cost.
The table below summarises the speed changes and wholesale price hikes on Octotel’s network.
Octotel fibre prices | ||||
Old speeds | New speeds | Wholesale price adjustment | ||
Download | Upload | Download | Upload | |
25Mbps | 25Mbps | 25Mbps | 25Mbps | No change |
35Mbps | 25Mbps | 50Mbps | 50Mbps | +R50 |
50Mbps | 50Mbps | 100Mbps | 100Mbps | +R60 |
100Mbps | 100Mbps | 200Mbps | 200Mbps | +R60 |
200Mbps | 200Mbps | 400Mbps | 200Mbps | No change |
1,000Mbps | 200Mbps | 1,000Mbps | 200Mbps | No change |