Prominent South African ISP sells its customer base

Fibre Internet service provider Mind the Speed has sold its customer base to Cool Ideas for an undisclosed sum. The Internet service provider (ISP) notified users over the weekend that their billing would be transferred over from 1 May 2025.

While Cool Ideas is often more expensive than Mind the Speed, the ISP assured customers that their current pricing and any discounts would remain the same for a year from the date of the switch.

“We’ve got some exciting news to share with you! We’re thrilled to announce that you, our valued Mind the Speed customers, are moving over to join the Cool Ideas family,” the ISP’s notification said.

“They’re a fantastic bunch of folks who are experts in bringing super-fast fibre to South Africa. Think of it as us connecting you with some really great friends to bring you even better service!”

Mind the Speed told customers it was confident this was a positive step forward.

“Cool Ideas shares our passion for awesome service and keeping you connected, and they’re just as friendly and helpful as we try to be.”

In addition to assuring that people’s bills would not change for a year, Mind the Speed said customers with voice over IP (VoIP) services would keep using their servers.

“For now, your VoIP services will keep running through our servers, but billing will be through Cool Ideas. Just like your Internet, your pricing will stay the same for 12 months,” it explained.

“Later on, they’ll help you move your VoIP services over to their servers — they’ll make it nice and smooth.”

MyBroadband contacted Network Platforms CEO and Mind the Speed co-director Bradley Love for more details about the sale, but he declined to comment on how much Cool Ideas paid or what was next for his company.

“Mind the Speed and Cool Ideas have an NDA. All information has been relayed to customers regarding the move,” Love stated.

“Should customers have any unanswered questions, they can engage directly with Cool Ideas or Mind the Speed.”

MyBroadband understands that nothing will change for Network Platforms, as Mind the Speed was a completely independent company with its own staff complement.

Mind the Speed co-director Warwick Ward-Cox said that Mind the Speed would be wound up and cease to exist.

Cool Ideas responds to customer questions

A Cool Ideas representative responded to questions about the migration on the MyBroadband forums.

They confirmed that any price increases Mind the Speed had previously communicated to customers remain in effect.

For example, Telkom-owned Openserve told ISPs in February that it would be increasing its fees from 1 April 2025.

Responding to concerns about what will happen to former Mind the Speed customers’ prices from next year, the representative explained that they can’t control fibre infrastructure operators’ wholesale prices.

“We can’t control pricing changes for the most part, so there is always risk involved. At the same time, we take the risk in acquiring these customers and can’t force them to stay.”

The representative also revealed that Mind the Speed approached them as it believed Cool Ideas had a similar approach to customer service.

On a more technical level, a customer asked if they would keep their public IP addresses or if they would be forced into Cool Ideas’ CGNAT pool.

“Public IPs always, and we are going to keep the same IP space,” Cool Ideas said.

Regarding concerns that the deal lessens competition in the industry because Cool Ideas itself is controlled by Afrihost, the representative said they still compete and operate independently.

“Afrihost is a shareholder of ours, and we still compete and operate independently. We’re probably part of a very select few group that does that,” they said.

Afrihost acquired a majority stake in Cool Ideas in 2021.

Cool Ideas acknowledged that its acquisition of Mind the Speed’s customers was partly horizontal integration to grow the business.

However, shareholder and Cool Ideas director Roelf Diedericks emphasised that the company had organically grown from a very small base.

“We were the first ISP on Vumatel and grew organically because of our service, and technical support and involvement. Our passion is to deliver the best network experience,” he said.

“We remain independent in the construction and operations of our network, and we run it independently from Afrihost and Axxess.”

Afrihost also owns Axxess. Much like Cool Ideas, it continues to run independently. Axxess’ offices are in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) — a substantial distance from Afrihost’s headquarters in Sandton.

“It took us a long time to scale our support and network operations, and it also involved me and the founders. We are still involved in all aspects of the business, including this forum,” said Diedericks.

“We are happy to welcome Mind The Speed customers to our network, and believe that we can deliver an amazing service to our new family.”