South African fibre price war — with 50Mbps from R499 per month

The entry-level fibre package speed for many South African fibre network operators (FNOs) has shifted from 10Mbps or 20Mbps to 50Mbps. A MyBroadband analysis has revealed that smaller Internet service providers (ISPs) offer the lowest prices on open-access networks.

To find the cheapest packages, we compared 50Mbps fibre packages on Vumatel, Openserve, Frogfoot, MetroFibre, Octotel, and Herotel’s networks across seven ISPs.

We only considered symmetrical packages for the comparison.

Our analysis showed that less-prominent ISPs such as C-Way and Wirulink offered better prices on 50Mbps packages than major providers.

Herotel’s pricing came in cheapest for this comparison at R499 a month. However, the ISP and FNO only offers packages on its own network and doesn’t have partnerships with other ISPs.

Vumatel has the country’s most expansive residential fibre network, with more than 1.6 million homes passed and 450,000 connected.

Looking 50Mbps products on its network, C-Way offers the best pricing at R598 per month — almost R100 a month less than the next cheapest ISP, RSAWeb.

RSAWeb charges R695 monthly for a 50Mbps fibre connection on Vumatel’s network.

Openserve is also a dominant FNO in South Africa, with 890,000 homes passed and 414,000 connected.

Wirulink sells the cheapest 50Mbps on Openserve’s network at R720 a month. Once again, the next cheapest ISP is RSAWeb, which charges R55 more per month for the same speed.

Wirulink is also the cheapest for Frogfoot’s symmetrical 50Mbps package at R685 monthly.

This is compared to R815, R827, R835, and R849 for the same package offered through RSAWeb, Afrihost, Axxess, and Cool Ideas, respectively.

C-Way’s pricing for Frogfoot’s 50Mbps fibre connection is also relatively low at R738 per month.

Looking at MetroFibre’s network, its 50Mbps fibre connection is generally cheaper than the other open access FNOs — with all ISPs compared offering its package for under R700 per month.

C-Way’s pricing for MetroFibre’s 50Mbps fibre connection is the lowest at R648 a month.

Lastly, RSAWeb is the cheapest for Octotel’s 50Mbps fibre package, and by some margin. The ISP charges R635 per month for the fibre connection — almost R100 less than the next-cheapest ISP, Afrihost.

This is not unexpected, as the same holding company owns RSAWeb and Octotel.

A comparison of 50Mbps fibre packages available on various South African FNOs through seven different ISPs is summarised in the table below.

Now read: Fighting fibre with fibre

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South African fibre price war — with 50Mbps from R499 per month