Major fibre hassle in South Africa

South Africans moving into new homes can encounter numerous issues with activating their fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) line that are outside their control.

A MyBroadband reader recently moved into a new house where the previous resident had used an ISP they were unfamiliar with.

The reader preferred to remain with Afrihost, his current ISP, rather than take over the previous resident’s package.

Because he works remotely for a business in the US and requires fast, low-latency connectivity, he ensured that he placed an order for a 250/250Mbps package at the new address early in July 2024, weeks before they would move in.

However, in the lead-up to the move, Afrihost support agents told him they could not schedule a new activation because the previous resident had not requested a line cancellation.

Another problem was that the previous resident had mistakenly taken the optical network terminal (ONT) with them, which is the property of the fibre network operator (FNO) providing the line — MetroFibre.

That meant the FNO would have to send out a technican to install a new ONT, further increasing the time it would take for the customer to get online.

MyBroadband queried the issue with MetroFibre and Afrihost, which promptly contacted the customer to resolve the deadlock. A MetroFibre technician arrived the next day to install a new ONT and activate the customer’s service.

Afrihost told MyBroadband the delay was because it was awaiting the proof of address from the new customer.

The customer explained they had already sent it more than two weeks earlier via email and provided the history of their email discussion with Afrihost as proof.

• 1 July 2024 — Customer requests fibre package at new address.
• 8 July 2024 — Afrihost notifies customer that previous resident still has active line at requested address.
• 10 July 2024 — Customer sends proof of address to request line release and informs Afrihost that previous resident has already moved.
• 17 July 2024 — Afrihost confirms it received proof of address and sent it to MetroFibre for processing.
• 22 July 2024 — Customer follows up about status of line activation after no feedback. Afrihost says it will follow up with MetroFibre and says delay could be due to previous resident’s ISP not honouring line release.

Afrihost provided no further updates to the customer until MyBroadband queried the delays on 25 July 2024, after which the matter was quickly concluded.

Evidently, the delay was not the customer’s fault, as they had already sent the proof of address two weeks before the issue was resolved.

ISPs dealing with complexity

MyBroadband asked some of South Africa’s major ISPs about the challenges with activating new fibre packages when customers moved.

Mweb and Webafrica communications head Greg Wright said that some FNOs made it a challenge to light up customers at new addresses, without giving any names.

He explained that most FNOs accepted a proof of address to authorise a “hard” switch from the old to a new ISP.

Afrihost said the FNO first had to liaise with the old ISP to release the line, causing signficant delays in bringing new activations online.

Wright also explained that only switching from one ISP to another while remaining on the same FNO and address could be more tricky.

“The customer could be leaving the previous ISP as a result of non-payment and then attempt to switch to a new ISP to gain a further month or two of ‘free’ Internet,” he explained.

If left unchallenged, some malicious customers can go into a switching cycle with minimal payments and high costs to ISPs.

Wright said that the issue of people taking the ONT with them when moving remained a challenge.

This creates an additional delay in getting the new customer online and has negative financial consequences for their ISP.

“FNOs usually unfairly charge the ‘next’ ISP who lights up the home an installation fee to cover the replacement of the ONT,” Wright said.

Wright said Mweb and Webafrica asked customers to leave the ONT in their homes when moving out.

FNOs have also told MyBroadband that their technicians will tell customers that the ONT must remain in the property and sometimes slap stickers on them to emphasise it is the property of the FNO.

Afrihost added that ongoing communication from FNOs and helpful media campaigns by the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa had helped reduce the frequency of ONT takeaways.