Big Black Friday fibre deals “like the market has never seen before”

At least one major fibre network operator (FNO) and Internet service provider (ISP) will be offering major Black Friday promotions in 2024.

Multiple FNOs and ISPs participated in Black Friday in 2023, giving customers significantly discounted subscriptions or a month free on a range of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) products.

Fibre is the optimal type of broadband for homes and businesses, offering the highest speeds, best stability, and lowest latency of any Internet product.

Fibre pricing can also vary greatly because most FNOs in the country operate on an open-access basis, reselling their lines through ISPs.

These ISPs have some space for manoeuvring pricing based on their margin to attract customers, resulting in tight competition.

ISPs’ ability to offer Black Friday deals can sometimes hinge on special offerings from the infrastructure providers.

By the time of publication, only one FNO — MetroFibre — confirmed it would be offering a Black Friday promo to all its partner ISPs on one product in 2024.

MetroFibre operates South Africa’s third-biggest open-access FTTH network, with 517,000 homes passed and 165,600 homes connected by June 2024. Only Vumatel and Openserve have passed more homes.

Therefore, many people will be able to benefit from its Black Friday offer.

The company said it was still finalising the terms and conditions, so it could not immediately reveal for which product the offer would be available.

MetroFibre offers FTTH packages with download speeds ranging from 20Mbps to 1Gbps.

MyBroadband’s previous comparisons have shown that MetroFibre’s 250/250Mbps product offers incredibly good value for money on a per-Mbps basis, compared to rival packages with similar speeds.

It was also on this package that the FNO gave reseller ISPs a R100 discount on its then-wholesale price of R600 (excluding VAT) in 2023.

MyBroadband also asked the country’s other five biggest FNOs whether they would be offering Black Friday deals.

Frogfoot said it would not be doing so, while Herotel, Octotel, Openserve, and Vumatel did not respond by the time of publication.

RSAWeb promising game-changing deal

The only ISP that confirmed it would be offering Black Friday deals this year was RSAWeb.

RSAWeb CEO Rudy van Staden said that the ISP was working on delivering a new and exciting offer for this year’s promotion, “something the ISP market hasn’t seen before.”

“RSAWeb has always led the charge when it comes to Black Friday deals, and this year will be no different,” Van Staden said.

He explained that RSAWeb would be working very closely with its FNO partners to ensure it brought something “truly special” to the market this year.

“We’re working on deals that not only offer the best value but also set a new standard in the market,” he stated, adding that RSAWeb’s offers would be available “across South Africa.”

“While we can’t reveal all the details just yet, keep an eye on our platforms as Black Friday approaches.”

In 2023, RSAWeb’s offers included 50% off on Vumatel and Openserve packages and R99 on Octotel packages for up to two months.

MyBroadband also asked other major ISPs including Afrihost, Axxess, Mweb, and Webafrica for their Black Friday plans.

Only Mweb and Webafrica had responded by the time of publication, confirming they would not participate.