Many fibre network operators increased customers’ line speeds free of charge as part of temporary interventions to help people work and attend classes from home. Today there are multiple fibre network operators vying for their share of the pie, including Vumatel, Openserve (Telkom’s rebranded wholesale division), Frogfoot, Octotel, Metrofibre, Vodacom, and Supersonic.įibre prices have gradually come down, but with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, some drastic changes occurred in the market. Only three packages were available at the time, all of which were capped and more expensive than Vumatel’s packages.ĭuring the course of the next year, uncapped fibre started to gain momentum, and in the next few years, fibre rollouts picked up the pace. Vumatel ground-breaking in Parkhurst.Īfter conducting its own trials for fibre technology, Telkom followed Vumatel by launching its first home fibre packages in December 2014. Telkom’s fastest consumer offering was a 40Mbps VDSL connection at R2,760.50 per month, compared to a 50Mbps Vumatel fibre package from Cybersmart priced at R1,299. Things were even bleaker for Telkom at the higher end of the spectrum. ISPs on Vumatel’s network - which included Cool Ideas, Mweb, Webafrica, Cybersmart, and Vox Telecom - generally offered their Vumatel fibre packages at much cheaper prices than they could achieve on Telkom’s DSL solutions.įor example, an entry-level 4Mbps fibre line from Cool Ideas on the Vumatel network was priced at R399 per month, while a 4Mbps DSL connection from Telkom cost R751.50. Until Vumatel’s launch, South Africans had few options for fixed-line Internet outside of relatively expensive copper-based digital subscriber line (DSL) connectivity on Telkom’s network.
Vumatel offered wholesale packages to Internet service providers (ISPs) with download speeds ranging from 4Mbps to 100Mbps. While fibre has been used in the networks of telecoms providers like Telkom as far back as 2007, a pivotal moment in the rollout of fibre-to-the-home was when Vumatel’s network went live in Parkhurst in October 2014. The MWEB ISP CEO added that their new uncapped ADSL products are also shaped, meaning that certain internet activities like e-mail and web browsing will be prioritized over bandwidth intensive services like P2P and torrents during peak network conditions.South Africa’s uncapped home fibre prices have come down by as much as 85% since the early days of the service in the country. “We will monitor usage across these products and reserve the right to throttle the connection speeds of the top percentage of subscribers on these products that generate usage above the average,” said Hershaw. Hershaw explained that they will maintain a fair service for all their subscribers by implementing throttling on high usage users where applicable (throttled speeds: 2Mbps, 192Kbps 4Mbps – 256Kbps.” Up to 1Mbps Premium Uncapped ADSL (unthrottled) The new packages adhere to all MWEB quality standards and are well suited to moderate internet users who still wish to benefit from an Uncapped experience with a fixed monthly bill. “Whilst MWEB has always promoted an unthrottled, uncapped connection as being the best way to experience the Internet, we have recognised that there is some demand for cheaper, throttled uncapped accounts and have therefore extended our product range to cater for this,” said Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWEB ISP.
“Unlike 1Mbps competitor offerings, this product will remain unthrottled,” MWEB highlighted.
MWEB’s 1Mbps Premium Uncapped ADSL pricing remains unchanged at R199 per month for data only and R339 per month for data plus an ADSL line (ADSL access). MWEB’s new “up to 2Mbps” and “up to 4Mbps” Data Only and Data plus ADSL line offerings will be R10 cheaper than Telkom’s new prices. MWEB’s new products will complement its existing Premium Uncapped ADSL product suite, and will be available to South African consumers from 01 February 2013. This comes after Telkom announced last week that it will be cutting its Uncapped ADSL prices. MWEB is introducing new throttled uncapped ADSL products which will be available from 1 February 2013.