The barrier to entry for household fibre Internet has dropped significantly in recent years, with South Africans able to get a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) package for R229 per month.
MyBroadband looked for the most affordable FTTH packages available in the country, regardless of whether they are prepaid or month-to-month.
Generally, fibre network operators (FNOs) target the country’s lower-income earners with their prepaid products. However, this trend is shifting.
In January 2024, Frogfoot chief product officer David Coleman told MyBroadband that the FNO was considering more prepaid FTTH products for higher-income areas in South Africa.
He said that just because residents in these areas generally earn high incomes doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from affordable fibre connectivity.
“The need for on-demand services is not limited to lower Living Standards Measure areas,” said Coleman.
Living Standards Measure (LSM) is a market research tool providing a more granular socio-economic class metric. The measurement ranges from 1 to 10, and higher numbers indicate greater access to wealth.
“There is a need for a product that delivers stable and accessible connectivity that’s priced to fit the needs of the market and designed to overcome the challenges of local infrastructure,” said Coleman.
“One of the core needs of the LSM 8–10 market is for connectivity to be cost-effective. They want the reliability and security of fibre but without the hefty price tag.”
According to Coleman, focussing on offering accessible price points across all South African suburbs will ensure that all residents have on-demand access to fibre.
Moreover, they don’t need to spend thousands per month; instead, they pay for what they need when they need it.
Prepaid fibre connectivity has various use cases. Holidaymakers can use a prepaid service to stay connected when away from home.
“Students and people living in retirement communities can now gain access to affordable connectivity that fits within their individual budgets,” added Coleman.
As Coleman mentioned, prepaid fibre packages enable customers to activate their service when they need it, saving them money when they don’t require fibre connectivity.
Those with month-to-month fibre packages can cancel their plan for months during which they don’t require connectivity. However, they must do so preemptively.
Subscribers will also have to consider the terms and conditions of their ISP.
Usually if you cancel within the first 12 months of an FTTH service, the ISP will claw back installation fees and the cost of any Wi-Fi router they provided.
Some ISPs charge a cancellation fee even after the first 12 months have passed.
Cheapest fibre packages
Interestingly, the cheapest fibre prepaid and month-to-month packages available to South African households are priced the same.
Zoom Fibre’s symmetrical 15Mbps package through Webafrica is the most affordable contract package available at R249 per month.
Webafrica offers a similarly priced prepaid service in the form of Vuma Reach’s entry-level prepaid package at a slightly slower speed of 10Mbps.
Another notable plan is Link Layer’s symmetrical 30Mbps line, which costs R279 per month through Webafrica. It offers the highest speeds in the R200 to R300 price bracket.
For reference, the most affordable service with a higher speed than the Link Layer package is Openserve Web Connect’s asymmetrical 40Mbps package through Webafrica, which costs R389 per month.
We found 27 FTTH packages available for less than R450 per month, with Frogfoot Air’s 50Mbps package with 10Mbps upload being the fastest.
Webafrica sells 30 days of 50Mbps Frogfoot Air connectivity for R429, while Afrihost charges R447 for the package.
Some of the cheapest fibre-to-the-home packages available to South African consumers are compared in the table below.
| Internet service provider | Fibre network operator | Download speed | Upload speed | Price |
| Webafrica | Zoom Fibre | 15Mbps | 15Mbps | R249 |
| Webafrica | Vuma Reach | 10Mbps | 10Mbps | R249 |
| Afrihost | Link Layer | 10Mbps | 10Mbps | R257 |
| Afrihost | Zoom Fibre | 15Mbps | 15Mbps | R267 |
| Webafrica | Link Layer | 30Mbps | 30Mbps | R279 |
| Axxess | Frogfoot Air | 10Mbps | 1Mbps | R295 |
| Afrihost | Frogfoot Air | 10Mbps | 1Mbps | R297 |
| Axxess | Openserve Web Connect | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R299 |
| Webafrica | Frogfoot Air | 10Mbps | 1Mbps | R329 |
| Afrihost | Openserve Web Connect | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R329 |
| Webafrica | Openserve Web Connect | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R339 |
| Axxess | Zoom Fibre | 15Mbps | 15Mbps | R345 |
| Axxess | Openserve Web Connect | 40Mbps | 20Mbps | R369 |
| Webafrica | Openserve Web Connect | 40Mbps | 20Mbps | R389 |
| Afrihost | Openserve Web Connect | 40Mbps | 20Mbps | R389 |
| Axxess | Frogfoot Air | 20Mbps | 2Mbps | R395 |
| RSAWeb | Vuma Reach | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R397 |
| Webafrica | Vuma Reach | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R399 |
| Afrihost | Vuma Reach | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R399 |
| Webafrica | Frogfoot Air | 50Mbps | 10Mbps | R429 |
| Herotel | Herotel | 20Mbps | 5Mbps | R429 |
| MetroConnect | Metrofibre | 20Mbps | 20Mbps | R440 |
| Afrihost | Frogfoot Air | 50Mbps | 10Mbps | R447 |
| Webafrica | Vumatel | 25Mbps | 25Mbps | R449 |
| RSAWeb | Octotel Prepaid | 20Mbps | 10Mbps | R449 |
| Afrihost | Vumatel | 25Mbps | 25Mbps | R449 |
| Axxess | Vumatel | 25Mbps | 25Mbps | R449 |