Entry-level fibre price showdown

Prominent fibre network operators (FNOs), including Vumatel, Openserve, and Frogfoot, have raised entry-level fibre speeds on their core packages while maintaining slower prepaid services in lower-income communities.

However, most smaller fibre networks still offer 10Mbps and 20Mbps on their main networks. MyBroadband compared the pricing of symmetrical and asymmetrical entry-level fibre packages available in South Africa.

Pricing data was obtained from Afrihost’s website, as it supports a broad selection of fibre networks.

Our analysis revealed that, in most cases, Frogfoot Air, Vuma Reach, Openserve Web Connect, and MetroConnect offer the lowest prices.

The cheapest 10Mbps fibre package available through Afrihost’s platform is Frogfoot Air’s asymmetrical line. It provides an upload speed of 1Mbps and costs R297 per month.

The next-most affordable is Openserve Web Connect’s package with 10Mbps download and 5Mbps upload speeds for R329.

Comtel Communication and Zoom Fibre offer competitive 10Mbps packages at R427 and R447 per month, respectively, both of which are symmetrical.

The most expensive 10Mbps line listed on Afrihost’s platform is Route Networks’ symmetrical package which costs R687 per month.

Regarding packages in the 20Mbps to 25Mbps range, the cheapest package in this bracket costs just R92 more per month than the most affordable 10Mbps line.

Openserve Web Connect’s asymmetrical 20Mbps line is available through Afrihost for R389.

It is closely followed by Vuma Reach, which charges R399 monthly for a similar package. Both offer an upload speed of 10Mbps.

Frogfoot Air and Metrofibre also offer competitive packages in the 20Mbps to 25Mbps range, with Metrofibre being the cheapest symmetrical offering.

Frogfoot Air charges R447 a month for its 20Mbps package with a 2Mbps upload speed, while Metrofibre’s MetroConnect service is R400 for 30 days of access.

The most affordable 25Mbps package on offer through Afrihost is Octotel’s symmetrical line which costs R527 monthly.

Netsream’s offering — a symmetrical 20Mbps line — in the bracket is the most expensive at R867 per month.

A comparison of 10Mbps, 20Mbps, and 25Mbps fibre packages available in South Africa is provided in the table below.

We used Afrihost as the Internet service provider to get pricing and included symmetrical and asymmetrical plans in the comparison.

Entry-level “suburban network” packages

South Africa’s biggest FNOs have all steadily upgraded the speeds of their lower-end packages while generally keeping prices the same.

This offers better value to customers without hurting the operators’ average revenue per user — an important metric for the financial health of a network operator.

Although more expensive than their lower-end prepaid offerings for underserved markets, these entry-level packages for their suburban networks remain competitive with some of the smaller FNOs’ lower-speed packages.

Openserve’s 40Mbps package is available for R547 monthly and offers a 20Mbps upload speed.

Frogfoot’s 40Mbps line with a 10Mbps upload speed costs R557 a month.

Vumatel’s lowest-speed package is more expensive than Openserve and Frogfoot’s at R727 per month. However, it offers symmetrical 50Mbps upload and download speeds.

Openserve, Frogfoot, Vumatel, and Metrofibre’s lowest-speed “suburban network” packages are summarised in the table below. and Octotel are also included for comparison.

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