Fibre3.02.2023

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

Now read: MetroFibre hiking 50Mbps and 100Mbps fibre prices

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