47 uncapped fibre packages for under R500

There are numerous fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages available in South Africa for under R500 per month, with many offering connectivity for less than R300.

The FTTH market has become fiercely competitive over the past few years, with a plethora of Internet service providers (ISPs) vying for a growing number of households getting access to fibre infrastructure.

While most households only have one fibre network operator (FNO) available in their area, some suburbs in densely populated areas have access to multiple networks.

Pricing is one way ISPs and FNOs can set themselves apart from the competition.

Many households are willing to pay a handsome monthly fee for reliable Internet, but some do not need the higher speeds FTTH offers.

With competing technologies like uncapped fixed-LTE and fixed-5G priced around R300 to R600, FTTH ISPs must offer entry-level packages to stay relevant in budget-oriented markets.

There has also been an increased focus from major FNOs to offer affordable products in lower-income areas.

MyBroadband perused the entry-level uncapped FTTH products available from four of the country’s best-known fibre ISPs — Afrihost, Cool Ideas, Telkom, and Webafrica — and found dozens of options for less than R500 per month.

Download speeds varied greatly — from 4Mbps to 50Mbps — while upload speeds ranged between 1Mbps and 30Mbps.

The cheapest package was a Zoom Fibre 15/15Mbps line priced at R229 per month through Cool Ideas.

Afrihost and Webafrica offered the same package for R267 and R249, respectively.

The most affordable package on one of the four big FTTH networks was a 25/25Mbps Vumatel package, available from Cool Ideas for R429 per month.

Afrihost, Telkom, and Webafrica charged R449 per month for the same product.

When including specialised low-income products like Frogfoot Air, Frogfoot Rise, Openserve Web Connect, and Vuma Reach, there were numerous options starting from R249 on Webafrica for the 10/10Mbps Vuma Reach package.

It should be emphasised that there are many other ISPs offering these services, so the total number of products under R500 in South Africa likely number in the hundreds.

The table below lists all the FTTH packages available for under R500 from four of South Africa’s most popular ISPs.

Source mybroadband.co.za