One thing that irrates fibre companies in South Africa

Major South African Internet service providers (ISPs) offering fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) products want people who move homes to prioritise notifying their ISPs as quickly as possible to cancel their service.

This stands out as one of the big issues causing delays in new fibre activations, harming perceptions of the industry among users who may not be familiar with the complexities of the FTTH ecosystem.

South African households have become increasingly reliant on reliable Internet connectivity. Just a few days without a fast uncapped connection may more easily frustrate people than in the past.

One of South Africa’s biggest ISPs — Afrihost — recently told MyBroadband that existing services from old customers on lines that new residents wanted to activate was a big headache.

“The process to get the address cleared and ready for an activation order also inhibits the activation quite a bit,” Afrihost said.

Another major ISP — Vox — agreed that this issue caused delays in getting new customers connected.

“Often, people move out and forget to cancel their services, and they might only do so after they have vacated or simply put in their notice late,” Vox said.

Afrihost explained that clearing an address for a new activation requires the new resident send through a proof of address to their chosen ISP.

The ISP must then liaise with the fibre network operator (FNO) to have the line released by the previous ISP.

Vox said that this process was cumbersome as the new ISP relied on another ISP to do their job quickly and efficiently to render a good service to its customers.

Cool Ideas has also listed the issue as one of its most common problems.

The ISP said that it can take a couple of days after a proof of address is sent to clear an address for new activations.

Certain FNOs have protocols in place to help mitigate against late notifications of moving by former customers.

For example, Openserve can activate the second port of an optical network terminal (ONT) for use by another customer while the first port is still active with another customer.

Other FNOs, like Link Layer, combine their ONTs and routers into one device. When a service is deactivated, these must be returned to the ISP.

Don’t take your ONT — unless your FNO says otherwise

Supersonic also said that incomplete or inaccurate addresses provided by new customers during sign-up created an unnecessary hassle.

In addition, it encountered delays in activations due to access approval issues with body corporates or estates.

Another problem some ISPs have continued to experience is the removal of ONTs by people moving to another address.

Supersonic said this delayed installation for new residents and incurred additional operational costs, as new hardware and occasionally site visits became necessary.

“In many cases, customers are unaware that the ONT is the property of the fibre network provider and should remain at the premises,” the ISP said.

The only exception would be for certain MetroFibre customers. The FNO allows users moving between two complexes where its fibre is available to take their ONTs along.

According to Afrihost, Vox, and Cool Ideas, ONT removals are occurring less frequently than in previous years.

“The occurrences have substantially lessened with the ongoing communication from Afrihost, FNOs , and helpful releases from the Internet Service Providers Association,” Afrihost said.