Major property developer ripping off fibre customers

Property developer Balwin has substantially higher prices on its entry-level and mid-tier fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages than major fibre network operators (FNOs).

MyBroadband recently compared the value offered by FTTH packages priced under R500 from six major Internet service providers (ISPs) across 15 fibre networks, both big and small.

We found that Balwin Fibre was the worst-value FNO by a significant margin. Its only product under R500 boasts a download speed of just 4Mbps and an upload speed of 1Mbps.

Most of the FTTH industry has increased their minimum download speeds to 20Mbps or faster, with uploads under 10Mbps being very rare.

Despite this uplift, many FNOs still offer packages cheaper or at a similar price as Balwin Fibre’s 4/1Mbps line.

From all three ISPs that sold this product at less than R500, the price per Mbps of download speed was over R100.

We examined Balwin Fibre’s product lineup more closely to see if it was more competitive at other price points.

Considering the company’s primary market is the emerging middle class, we focused on packages priced under R1,000.

We found that its next two most affordable products — with symmetric speeds of 40Mbps and 75Mbps, respectively — also offered poor value for money across five major ISPs.

Balwin Fibre customers are less likely to have an alternative FNO to choose from than people in other locations.

While it is common for a suburb, complex, or estate to have access to just one FNO, people in residential areas without exclusivity agreements could petition a nearby rival fibre provider to “overbuild” into their homes.

However, Balwin has even more control over the available service providers as it is also the property developer.

Balwin is also restrictive in terms of Internet service providers. On the major networks, there are dozens of ISPs to choose from, intensifying price competition.

Balwin Fibre only has six partner ISPs that sell its packages and for all five of those with pricing available online, it was the worst-value option for products under R1,000 per month.

MyBroadband asked Balwin for comment on its fibre pricing strategy but did not receive feedback by the time of publication.

The tables below compare Balwin Fibre’s prices with Vumatel, Openserve, MetroFibre, and Frogfoot, across five major ISPs.

Budget: R400 to R600

Budget: R600 to R800

Budget: R800 to R1,000