High-speed fibre price showdown

While fibre network operators (FNOs) Vumatel and Openserve dominate the South African market, smaller FNOs have been working on expanding their networks and connecting more homes.

MyBroadband compared 50Mbps, 100Mbps, 200Mbps, 500Mbps, and 1Gbps packages from various FNOs, and found that either MetroFibre, Frogfoot, Octotel, or Zoom Fibre beat the dominant FNOs in terms of price in at least one speed category.

Vumatel is the largest residential fibre operator in the country, with 1.6 million homes passed and 450,000 connected.

Openserve, although having passed only 890,000 homes, has a better connection rate than Vumatel and isn’t far behind the leader in terms of homes connected.

Openserve has only connected 36,000 fewer homes than Vumatel at 414,000. It also has the physically larger fibre network, with over 160,000km of cable in the ground, compared to Vumatel and DFA’s combined 44,000km.

While smaller FNOs like Metrofibre, Frogfoot, and Zoom Fibre have only passed and connected a fraction of the homes, their networks are rapidly expanding.

Metrofibre Networx told MyBroadband that it had connected approximately 110,000 homes to its network, with the FNO having passed 400,000. This represents a connection rate of about 28%.

Frogfoot said it had passed 338,600 homes, of which 134,400 have connected to its network — a connection rate of about 40%.

Zoom Fibre — the fastest FNO to pass 100,000 homes in South Africa — told MyBroadband that it has now passed 130,000 homes with its network and connected 27,000.

50Mbps

MetroFibre, Openserve, and Zoom Fibre’s 50Mbps packages are the cheapest available through Afrihost at R697 a month.

However, it should be noted that both MetroFibre and Zoom Fibre’s packages are symmetrical, while Openserve’s upload speed for the R697 package maxes out at 25Mbps.

A comparison of 50Mbps fibre packages available in South Africa is provided in the table below.

We used Afrihost as the Internet service provider (ISP) to get pricing and included symmetrical and asymmetrical plans in the comparison.

100Mbps

Frogfoot and Octotel’s 100Mbps packages are the cheapest available through Afrihost at R827.

However, Frogfoot’s package only offers a maximum upload speed of 10Mbps, while Octotel’s 100Mbps fibre connection is symmetrical.

A comparison of 100Mbps fibre packages available in South Africa is provided in the table below.

We used Afrihost as the Internet service provider (ISP) to get pricing and included symmetrical and asymmetrical plans in the comparison.

200Mbps

The cheapest 200Mbps fibre connections available through Afrihost come from Octotel and Zoom Fibre at R997 per month. Both packages feature symmetrical upload and download speeds.

They are R50 cheaper a month than the next-most affordable options.

A comparison of 200Mbps fibre packages available in South Africa is provided in the table below.

We used Afrihost as the Internet service provider (ISP) to get pricing and included symmetrical and asymmetrical plans in the comparison.

500Mbps

Zoom Fibre’s 500Mbps fibre connection is the cheapest available through Afrihost and by some margin at R1,097 monthly.

This is R100 a month less than the next cheapest option. However, it should be noted that the package is asymmetrical and features a maximum upload speed of 250Mbps.

At the same time, Vumatel’s product is the next cheapest, and its upload speed maxes out at 200Mbps.

A comparison of 500Mbps fibre packages available in South Africa is provided in the table below.

We used Afrihost as the Internet service provider (ISP) to get pricing and included symmetrical and asymmetrical plans in the comparison.

1Gbps

The cheapest 1Gbps fibre connection available through Afrihost belongs to Octotel at R1,447 per month.

The asymmetrical package features a 100Mbps upload speed and is R50 less a month than Vumatel’s asymmetrical 1Gbps with a 200Mbps upload speed.

A comparison of 1Gbps fibre packages available in South Africa is provided in the table below.

We used Afrihost as the Internet service provider (ISP) to get pricing and included symmetrical and asymmetrical plans in the comparison.

Now read: Fighting fibre with fibre