Fibre3.02.2025

Best fibre plans under R500 — with speeds up to 75Mbps

South African households have many fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) plans available for under R500, with download speeds ranging from 4Mbps to 75Mbps.

MyBroadband assembled 55 such FTTH packages from five major Internet service providers (ISPs) — Afrihost, Axxess, Cool Ideas, RSAWeb, Telkom, and Webafrica.

We found that 15 fibre network operators (FNOs) had at least one option available from these ISPs below our targeted price point.

Unfortunately, most households with FTTH coverage have just one FNO to choose from, so the actual options available will be more limited.

For example, those in areas with only Balwin Fibre coverage have just two packages and prices available to them.

Those who use one of the big four networks — Vumatel, Openserve, MetroFibre, or Frogfoot — have far more choice.

Pricing and speeds on the packages varied greatly.

To help households looking for the best-value products available for under R500, we also calculated the price per Mbps of download speed of each package and used this as our main performance metric.

Most Internet applications rely on download rates, so we gave this factor preference in our assessment.

RSAWeb’s 75/75Mbps MetroFibre Nexus product for R495 per month came out on top, with an effective per-Mbps price of R6.60.

Four more products had effective per-Mbps prices below R10. These were only available on the lower-income focused networks of Frogfoot Air and Openserve Web Connect, however.

The worst-value sub-R500 FTTH package was Balwin Fibre’s 4/1Mbps product.

Of the five ISPs, only Cool Ideas and Webafrica had this package for less than our targeted price point. In both instances, the effective price per Mbps of Balwin’s entry-level offering was over R100.

The most affordable package under R500 was also available from RSAWeb.

For R247 per month, those in a Vuma Reach area can get a 10/10Mbps package from the ISP.

The table below summarises some of the sub-R500 FTTH packages available in South Africa in January 2025.

The amounts marked in blue are for the cheapest monthly price and effective price per Mbps.

ISPFNODownload/upload speedsMonthly pricePrice per Mbps of download speed
RSAWebMetroFibre Nexus75/75MbpsR495R6.60
Cool IdeasFrogfoot Air50/10MbpsR449R8.98
AxxessOpenserve Web Connect40/20MbpsR369R9.23
TelkomOpenserve Web Connect40/20MbpsR385R9.63
AfrihostOpenserve Web Connect40/20MbpsR389R9.73
RSAWebOpenserve Web Connect40/20MbpsR395R9.88
Cool IdeasZoom Fibre20/20MbpsR279R13.95
Cool IdeasZoom Fibre30/30MbpsR429R14.30
RSAWebVuma Reach30/10MbpsR437R14.57
AfrihostZoom Fibre20/20MbpsR297R14.85
AxxessOpenserve Web Connect20/10MbpsR299R14.95
RSAWebOpenserve Web Connect20/10MbpsR313R15.65
TelkomOpenserve Web Connect20/10MbpsR315R15.75
WebafricaZoom Fibre20/20MbpsR319R15.95
AxxessFrogfoot Air25/10MbpsR425R15.96
AxxessZoom Fibre30/30MbpsR485R16.17
AfrihostZoom Fibre30/30MbpsR487R16.23
AxxessZoom Fibre20/20MbpsR325R16.25
Cool IdeasLink Layer30/30MbpsR489R16.30
AfrihostOpenserve Web Connect20/10MbpsR329R16.45
AfrihostLink Layer30/30MbpsR497R16.57
Cool IdeasVumatel25/25MbpsR429R17.16
RSAWeb Demux25/25MbpsR445R17.80
RSAWebVumatel25/25MbpsR447R17.88
AfrihostFrogfoot Air25/10MbpsR447R17.88
AfrihostOctotel25/25MbpsR449R17.96
AxxessVumatel25/25MbpsR449R17.96
TelkomVumatel25/25MbpsR449R17.96
WebafricaVumatel25/25MbpsR469R18.76
Cool IdeasVuma Reach20/10MbpsR389R19.45
AfrihostVuma Reach20/20MbpsR399R19.56
RSAWebVuma Reach20/10MbpsR397R19.85
AfrihostVumatel Reach20/10MbpsR399R19.95
WebafricaFibre Geeks20/10MbpsR409R20.45
Cool IdeasNetX20/5MbpsR440R22.00
RSAWebOctotel Flexi Connect20/10MbpsR449R22.45
Cool IdeasMetroFibre Nova20/20MbpsR454R22.70
RSAWebFibre Geeks20/10MbpsR475R23.75
RSAWeb Vuma Reach10/10MbpsR247R24.70
AfrihostMetroFibre Nova20/20MbpsR497R24.85
Cool IdeasFrogfoot Air10/1MbpsR329R32.90
RSAWebDemux10/10MbpsR365R36.50
RSAWebThinkSpeed10/5MbpsR395R39.50
Cool IdeasRed Networks10/10MbpsR399R39.90
Cool IdeasGaia Fibonacci10/10MbpsR409R40.90
Cool IdeasComtel10/10MbpsR418R41.80
AfrihostGaia Fibonacci10/10MbpsR427R42.70
AfrihostComtel10/10MbpsR457R45.70
WebafricaComtel10/10MbpsR479R47.90
Cool IdeasFibre Suburb Networks10/10MbpsR489R48.90
AfrihostFibre Suburb Networks10/10MbpsR497R49.70
WebafricaComtel5/5MbpsR349R69.80
Cool IdeasBalwin Fibre4/1MbpsR459R114.75
WebafricaBalwin Fibre4/1MbpsR489R122.25
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