Big Frogfoot fibre speed and price changes

Fibre network operator (FNO) Frogfoot is increasing the speeds of all but one of its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages in early 2024.

MyBroadband learnt of the price adjustments after a customer forwarded us an email from their Internet service provider (ISP) notifying them of a change to their package.

In their case, they will be migrated from the 40/10Mbps product to a 60/30Mbps package starting 1 February 2024. A price increase of R30 will kick in a month earlier.

Instead of R589, the customer will be paying a monthly fee of R619, working out to a percentage increase of just over 5%.

An industry source subsequently confirmed the line speed changes on Frogfoot’s network, which will also come with adjusted wholesale prices charged to ISPs.

Frogfoot is South Africa’s fourth-biggest FNO by homes passed and connected.

In addition to its entry-level packages, Frogfoot has informed ISPs about sweeping changes to the rest of its wholesale product lineup.

Its 80Mbps packages will also have their speeds bumped up to 120Mbps, the 150Mbps packages are increasing to 240Mbps, and the 250Mbps lines are being replaced with 400Mbps packages.

Frogfoot’s 500Mbps packages are being discontinued and customers migrated to 1Gbps products.

The asymmetrical 1Gbps service will see its upload speed of 100Mbps increased to 500Mbps.

Lastly, the 1Gbps asymmetrical package with 200Mbps upload speed will also see the latter increased to 500Mbps.

The only product that will remain unchanged is the symmetrical 1Gbps package.

The table below summarises Frogfoot’s FTTH line speed changes, taking effect from 1 January 2024.

MyBroadband asked Frogfoot for comment on the adjustments but had not received feedback by the time of publication.

Although the precise wholesale price changes remain unconfirmed, an industry source said that the adjustments on some of the products were “substantial”.

One product will see its wholesale price hiked by R200, excluding VAT.

It was also unclear whether the price changes and line speed adjustments would take effect in January or February 2024.

Hurting ISP profit margins

Wholesale price changes do not translate directly into the prices paid by end-users.

However, many ISPs are forced to adjust their prices accordingly to maintain a reasonable profit margin or avoid making a loss on a product.

Larger ISPs might be able to absorb part of the hike and keep their prices unchanged, but usually only if the increase is not a big one.

Frogfoot’s adjustments follow a trend by several major FNOs to increase their minimum line speeds over the past few years.

While this increases the capacity of their connections, the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) has previously warned FNOs to stop forcing higher speeds on customers.

“While upgrades advertising ‘more for the same price’, for example, are indeed good news for most consumers, FNOs shouldn’t assume forced upgrades make sense for everyone,” the association said.

“In today’s challenging economic climate, not all consumers want (or need) a faster service,” ISPA said.

“Some consumers would prefer to experience the same speed service they previously enjoyed and to simply pay less for it.”

ISPA said increasing fibre line speeds often erodes Internet service providers’ profit margins.

“FNOs can therefore directly influence the financial viability of ISPs and the competitive market which has taken decades to construct,” ISPA warned.

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