Vumatel is the largest fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) provider in South Africa, with a network that passes over two million homes and connects nearly 900,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telkom’s Openserve is hot on its trail with just over 1.5 million homes passed and nearly 800,000 connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Homes passed is the industry term for the size of a network, measured by the number of premises that can connect to a fibre network. Operators also report the number of homes connected to their network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 2,040,231 homes passed and 864,208 connected, Vumatel has a connectivity rate, or the portion of homes connected versus homes passed, of 42.36%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Telkom’s Openserve has the second-largest network, it has the best connectivity rate in South Africa. Of its 1,501,406 homes passed, it has connected 786,490, for a connectivity rate of 52.38%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telkom published a trading statement for the period ended 30 December 2025, revealing strong growth at Openserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Homes passed increased by 12.0% to 1,501,406, while homes connected increased by 17.8% to 786,490. Our industry-leading connectivity rate expanded to 52.4%,” Telkom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Herotel has the third-largest fibre network in South Africa, with 606,388 homes passed and 273,829 homes connected as of December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be noted that Vumatel is acquiring Herotel. The Competition Commission recently approved the deal, subject to undisclosed conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MetroFibre and Frogfoot are in fifth and sixth largest, respectively. MetroFibre has passed 515,000 homes and connected 175,000, while Frogfoot’s has passed 446,000 homes and connected 187,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another major player, Octotel, holds seventh place with 400,000 homes passed and 135,000 connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The table below compares the homes passed and homes connected for the top 10 fibre network operators in South Africa as of February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two FNOs, Net Nine Nine and Finnfund-backed Fibertime, quietly slipped into South Africa’s top 10 largest fibre networks by homes passed during 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cynk Group’s Net Nine Nine expanded its FTTH coverage to 300,000 homes, while Fibertime’s network expanded to 250,000 homes during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the companies have been around for several years, they ramped up their rollouts in 2025 while many of the country’s largest FNOs slowed their expansions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Net Nine Nine expanded its network to include areas in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It targets lower-income and emerging middle-class markets, offering three uncapped FTTH packages on a month-to-month basis. It also offers free installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fibertime’s network expanded to pass over 170,000 new homes with FTTH between February and November 2025, with its coverage areas including parts of 39 townships in all provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It aims to expand its network to reach 1.8 million households by April 2028 and to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it achieves a listing, Fibertime would be the first FNO to have direct presence on the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fibertime’s service is strictly pay-as-you-go, offering daily vouchers that provide access to uncapped 100Mbps fibre for R5 per day for a single device or R10 per day for up to five devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vouchers are sold at spaza shops, convenience stores, and major retailers, including Shoprite and Pick n Pay, and on some mobile banking apps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These are the 10 largest fibre-to-the-home networks in South Africa based on homes passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":629435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28470],"tags":[91509,64179,69191,20153,29952,29548,59717,96647,30850,33386,25299],"class_list":["post-629365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fibre","tag-fibertime","tag-fibre-network-operators-fnos","tag-fibre-networks","tag-fibre-to-the-home-ftth","tag-frogfoot","tag-herotel","tag-metrofibre","tag-net-nine-nine","tag-octotel","tag-openserve","tag-vumatel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629365"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629528,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629365\/revisions\/629528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fibre network operator<\/th> Homes passed<\/th> Homes connected<\/th> Connectivity rate<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Vumatel<\/td> 2,040,231<\/td> 864,208<\/td> 42.36%<\/td><\/tr> Openserve<\/td> 1,501,406<\/td> 786,490<\/td> 52.38%<\/td><\/tr> Herotel<\/td> 606,388<\/td> 273,289<\/td> 45.07%<\/td><\/tr> MetroFibre<\/td> 515,000<\/td> 175,000<\/td> 33.98%<\/td><\/tr> Frogfoot<\/td> 446,000<\/td> 187,000<\/td> 41.93%<\/td><\/tr> Octotel<\/td> 400,000<\/td> 135,000<\/td> 33.75%<\/td><\/tr> Net Nine Nine<\/td> 300,000<\/td> 100,000<\/td> 33.34%<\/td><\/tr> Fibertime<\/td> 251,460<\/td> Unknown<\/td> Unknown<\/td><\/tr> Zoom Fibre<\/td> 191,636<\/td> 65,100<\/td> 33.97%<\/td><\/tr> Evotel<\/td> 175,000<\/td> 52,500*<\/td> 30.00%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody> *Estimated on a 30% connectivity ratio<\/em>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tfoot><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Two new fibre giants in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n