Cheapest uncapped fibre ever in South Africa

Vumatel’s newly launched Vuma Key product is the most affordable home fibre product in the country to date.

That is according to MyBroadband’s analysis of the best-priced fibre products in South Africa.

South Africa’s biggest fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network operator officially launched the low-income-focused service last week, claiming it was the country’s most affordable uncapped fibre service at R99 per month.

“Based on similar competing offerings at the time of launch, Vuma Key is 34% cheaper than their closest competitor,” said Vumatel.

Vuma Key is the brainchild of Vumatel founder and former CEO Neil Schoeman, who dreamt of providing 10 million homes in South Africa with 100Mbps fibre for R89 per month.

While the first Vuma Key product falls short of that vision, it is nonetheless a remarkable milestone in making fast and uncapped Internet accessible.

MyBroadband previously visited the Vuma Key pilot project in Alexandra, the first area to get the service.

Many users said they were very impressed and happy with the service, particularly because it had drastically reduced how much money they spent on data.

The “competing offer” Vuma referred to in its launch announcement was likely Alan Knott-Craig’s Fibertime, which is also focused on low-income areas.

Until the launch of Vuma Key, Fibertime had the most affordable fibre in South Africa when measured on a daily and weekly basis.

Fibertime’s package costs R5 per day, which works out to R35 per week or R150 over a 30-day month.

The R99 price of Vuma Key is exactly 34% cheaper than the latter.

We also compared Vuma Key’s pricing and speeds with other entry-level home fibre products.

We found it was 57% cheaper than the most affordable FTTH product that is available outside townships and underserved communities.

Vuma Key also offered good value for money among entry-level fibre packages priced below R400 per month, when considering the price per Mbps of download speed.

It is only Openserve Web Connect’s 40/20Mbps that had better pricing from three major Internet service providers (ISPs).

Most prepaid products cannot hold a candle to Vuma Key

We also looked at prepaid fibre package prices to see how these stacked up against Vuma Key.

Aside from Fibertime’s R5 daily offer, the only other package available on a daily prepaid basis is MetroConnect’s 24-hour package at R20.

Frogfoot Rise’s entry-level option is a 10/5Mbps package for R69, but it is only valid for one week.

Its faster 20/10Mbps weekly package is priced at R99, the same as Vuma Key’s monthly price.

The table below compares Vuma Key’s pricing to the other most affordable home fibre packages in South Africa, all priced below R400 per month.