The network operator is widely criticized for downtime which lasts for days, poor customer support, and high prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince yesterday I’ve had no active line and Vumatel is failing to respond to my ISP. This happened in January as well,\u201d said one Vumatel client.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been 4 days without a fibre connection through no fault of my own, and Vumatel can\u2019t be bothered to fix it. I have to wait because I\u2019m in a queue,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
One client proposed that service providers such as Vox, Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom should consider finding alternative fibre providers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will release the stress and embarrassment all around. The service from Vumatel is far below average,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Dietlof](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Dietlof-Mare-640x426.jpg\")
<\/a>Dietlof Mare<\/p><\/div>\n
These complaints come at a time when Vumatel is keeping prices high<\/strong><\/a> while its main competitor, Openserve, increased speeds and cut prices.<\/p>\n Vumatel\u2019s recent decision to discontinue some of its affordable fibre packages, which will result in customers being moved to more expensive options, was also not well received.<\/p>\n \u201cThe moment an alternative presents itself I\u2019m ditching Vumatel\u2026the value proposition sucks compared to your competitors,\u201d one Vumatel user said.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone at Vuma needs to understand that connection prices are coming down – not going up all the time,\u201d said another client.<\/p>\n Responding to questions about their high fibre pricing, Vumatel CEO Dietlof Mare said it \u201chas been our aim over the last seven years to give our customers the best quality infrastructure and to do so in the most sustainable way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Mare\u2019s argument about offering the \u201cbest quality infrastructure\u201d could explain their higher prices, but it does not hold water if the allegations about lagging network quality and poor support are true.<\/p>\n The backlash against Vumatel is happening when Remgro, through its subsidiary Community Investment Venture Holdings (CIVH), is trying to sell a stake in the company.<\/p>\n There is industry speculation that CIVH<\/strong><\/a>, which owns Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel, has crippling debt.<\/p>\n One industry source told MyBroadband CIVH and Vumatel\u2019s debt to EBIDTA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) ratio is much higher than other players.<\/p>\n He said Vumatel and DFA cannot take on much more debt and therefore have to find alternative ways to fund the business.<\/p>\n One of these ways is to charge more for services, which is now happening with Vumatel\u2019s decision to terminate more affordable options.<\/p>\n Another way is to sell a stake in the company to raise capital and reduce debt. This is also in full swing.<\/p>\n CIVH\u2019s management started a capital raise project in November 2019, and after a lull during the COVID-19 pandemic, reignited its search late last year.<\/p>\n The main challenge for Remgro is to find an investor with deep enough pockets to stomach CIVH\u2019s eye-watering equity valuation of R19.353 billion.<\/p>\n With CIVH recording huge losses each year, there is a tremendous amount of goodwill baked into the valuation.<\/p>\n Vumatel\u2019s high prices and alleged network deterioration, however, will make it vulnerable to competition from 5G or even overbuilds by other fibre operators.<\/p>\n This, in turn, will impact the CIVH\u2019s valuation as the economic moat because its first-mover advantage is not as strong as it used to be.<\/p>\n MyBroadband asked Vumatel for comment about its network problems and prolonged outages, but the company did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n ISPs and consumers are slating Vumatel for its poor network quality, prolonged outages, and lack of support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":389396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28470],"tags":[51499,68954,68956,297,4462,35,33386,25299],"class_list":["post-389392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fibre","tag-civh","tag-community-investment-venture-holdings","tag-community-investment-venture-holdings-civh","tag-dfa","tag-dietlof-mare","tag-headline","tag-openserve","tag-vumatel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389420,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389392\/revisions\/389420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"CIVH\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CIVH-640x357.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow read: Vumatel\u2019s high fibre prices under fire<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"