New ISP shaking up fibre prices in South Africa

Hollywoodbets’ new Internet service provider (ISP), Hollywood Connect, has revealed pricing for its fibre-to-the-home packages on Link Layer, Metrofibre, Openserve, and Zoom Fibre’s networks.

Its pricing is highly competitive compared to some of the country’s largest ISPs, such as Afrihost and Cool Ideas, and often beats their pricing in various speed categories.

The company officially launched Hollywood Connect earlier this year.

In May, it applied to take ownership of the Individual Electronic Communications Service (I-ECS) and Individual Electronic Communications Network Service (I-ECNS) licences belonging to East Coast Access.

An I-ECS licence would enable Hollywood Connect to sell Internet services nationwide on their own or other operators’ physical networks.

The I-ECNS licence would let the ISP roll out a physical network nationwide.

It should be noted that Hollywood Connect’s packages are currently only available in areas across Durban.

However, its attempt to acquire an I-ECS licence indicates plans to roll out nationally.

A Border Gateway Protocol query showed that the Hollywoodbets’ autonomous system currently advertises 2,048 IPv4 addresses and is sitting on many trillions of IPv6 addresses.

East Coast Access has 8,192 IPv4 addresses and no IPv6 assignment.

MyBroadband compared Hollywood Connect’s prices to similar packages on Cool Ideas and Afrihost.

The new ISP only offers fibre-to-the-home packages on Link Layer, Metrofibre, Openserve, and Zoom Fibres networks.

We only compared its packages to those available through Cool Ideas and Afrihost on the same networks.

Hollywood Connect packages were the cheapest in the 50Mbps to 75Mbps, 100Mbps, 200Mbps to 300Mbps, and 400Mbps to 500Mbps speed categories.

While Hollywood Connect also offers the most affordable symmetrical package in the 1Gbps category, Cool Ideas and Afrihosts’ asymmetrical packages from Zoom Fibre and Metrofibre are more affordable.

The tables at the end of the article compare Hollywood Connect’s fibre-to-the-home packages to Cool Ideas and Afrihost plans on similar networks.

I-ECS and I-ECNS licence problems

The Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (Ispa) has previously criticised the inability for operators to apply for new I-ECS and I-ECNS licences.

These licences are not readily available, as industry regulator Icasa must issue a call inviting operators to apply for them.

For I-ECNS licences, Icasa can only release such an invitation upon direction from South Africa’s communications minister.

Currently, businesses can only acquire such a licence by buying one second-hand, which can be costly. According to Ispa, each licence often sells for over R1 million.

“There is no reason under the Electronic Communications Act why any qualifying telecoms market entrant cannot apply to Icasa for an I-ECS licence or an I-ECNS licence,” Ispa said.

“The bulk issuing of more than 500 I-ECS and I-ECNS licence pairs in 2009 and 2010 removed any policy rationale for restricting the issuing of licences for the operation of electronic communications networks.”

Ispa regulatory advisor Dominic Cull said the current situation created artificial barriers to entry to an ICT market that was crucial for South Africa’s future growth and aspirations.

Ispa wrote to the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies and Icasa, expressing the opinion that facilitating greater market entry would boost competition and transformation.

It specifically asked the minister to give due consideration to issuing a policy direction as contemplated under the Act directing Icasa to issue an invitation to apply (ITA) for I-ECNS licences.

It also called on Icasa to issue a standing ITA for issuing I-ECS licences to qualifying applicants.

In the association’s view, there was no legal impediment stopping Icasa from immediately drafting and finalising a standard ITA to allow applications for I-ECS licences.

Only the I-ECNS licences require a simple ministerial policy directive before a standing ITA can be finalised.

Ispa has not received substantive feedback from the minister or Icasa since sending the letters in October 2020, over three years ago.

In January 2023, the association explained the situation led to some licence holders viewing the licences as a ticket to get rich.

15Mbps to 30Mbps

50Mbps to 75Mbps

100Mbps

200Mbps to 300Mbps

400Mbps to 500Mbps

1Gbps