Biggest fibre networks in South Africa

Telkom recently released a trading update for the third quarter of its financial year, revealing that Openserve’s fibre network covers 1.3 million homes, with 667,465 considered “homes connected” as of 31 December 2024.

“We continued to prioritise fibre connections as we passed homes with an additional 100,115 homes connected, up by a strong 17.6%,” stated Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong.

It should be noted that Openserve counts any house with a fibre drop installed as a home connected to its network, regardless of whether there is an active broadband subscription.

In addition to recording solid growth in its fibre footprint, Telkom also reported a substantial increase in data usage among its fixed broadband customers.

“Consumer demand for high-speed broadband pushed data consumption up 23.7% to 757 petabytes during the quarter,” said Taukobong.

While Openserve continues to steadily expand its fibre coverage, many other fibre network operators (FNOs) have elected to slow down their rollouts and focus on encouraging uptake.

Among the major players, CIVH-owned Vumatel retains a clear lead as the largest FNO in the country.

Vumatel has passed over two million homes with FTTH, of which nearly one million either have active connections or can be activated immediately upon ordering.

Openserve placed second, and although its “homes passed” figure is more than three times larger than the next biggest FNO’s coverage, it is still around 400,000 homes shy of its fixed broadband peak during ADSL’s heyday.

Telkom was slow to respond to Vumatel’s rapid expansion and did not fully leverage its extensive existing infrastructure to retain the top spot in the fixed broadband market.

The company first reported its FTTH customer numbers in March 2016 — around 18 months after Vumatel launched its pivotal Parkhurst pilot.

While there was a window for Telkom to blow Vumatel out of the water, it vacillated between investing in its mobile network and fibre-to-the-home.

Telkom now has another opportunity to catch up with Vumatel. The fibre pioneer has tapped out its balance sheet and has been forced to focus on paying off debt, dramatically slowing further rollouts.

CIVH shareholder Remgro attempted to secure a cash injection for Vumatel by selling a 30% stake in the company to Vodacom. However, the Competition Tribunal blocked the deal.

The acquiring parties have said they will appeal the decision. Parks Tau, the South African Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, has said the government will join the appeal.

However, they still await the Tribunal’s comprehensive reasons for rejecting the transaction before they can lodge their appeals.

Herotel, currently the third-largest FNO in South Africa, has built a substantial footprint by focusing on smaller, underserviced cities and towns.

By the end of 2024, it had passed nearly 575,000 homes with FTTH, of which roughly 214,000 had active connections.

Notably, Herotel operates the only closed-access network in the country’s top 10, acting as both the infrastructure provider and the ISP.

Vumatel owns a 49% stake in Herotel and is awaiting the Competition Commission’s recommendation on whether it can acquire the rest of the company.

MetroFibre Networx ranks as the third-biggest open-access FNO and fourth overall, having passed over 510,000 homes and connected 172,000.

Rounding out the top five is Frogfoot, with 406,000 homes passed and 169,000 connected — just 3,000 shy of MetroFibre’s homes connected total.

The remaining major FTTH players include Octotel, Zoom Fibre, and Evotel.

The table below summarises the latest number of homes passed and connected with FTTH connectivity in South Africa.