Introduction
Fibre is the fastest and most reliable connection we have in South Africa. It can work at the speed of light and can achieve speeds of up to 200 Mbps. This review looks at top fibre service providers in South Africa.
What Is Fibre To The Business?
There are two types of fibre in South Africa, Fibre To The Home (FTTH) and Fibre To The Business (FTTB). FTTH is normally used in households and is cheaper than FTTB which is more expensive as it takes into consideration a business’s needs.
According to fibre Internet service provider Accelerit, “FTTB has several advantages over FTTH, including wider coverage, better contention ratios, complex security, and clearly-defined service level agreements (SLA).”
The Benefits Of Fibre For SMEs
In an interview with SME South Africa, titled ‘Rise in Fibre Adoption Among SMEs’ Arthur Goldstuck, principal researcher for SME Survey and MD of World Wide Worx, notes that a key benefit of fibre for SMEs is that it enables SMEs to operate online without any of the performance and quality constraints they may have faced before.
This means that communications are significantly improved, enabling businesses to utilise solutions like video-conferencing and social media platforms to further their business. It also enables businesses to use the Internet for transactional purposes, thanks to the quality and speed of the connectivity.
How to Get Fibre?
To get FTTB you need to have fibre infrastructure in the area that you operate in. Infrastructure providers do not offer any retail services to end users. Some of the biggest business fibre infrastructure providers in South Africa are Vumatel and Openserve, however there are many more out there.
Check with the fibre infrastructure provider to find out if there is business fibre available in your area. After which you would then choose an Internet service provider (ISP) operating within that fibre infrastructure that fits your needs.
Unlike infrastructure providers, fibre service providers provide retail services for the end user. Well-known examples include Telkom and Afrihost. Once you have signed up with an ISP, the fibre infrastructure provider will send someone to install fibre to your business. When the process is complete the ISP will send you a router and activate your account. This should take 3-5 operating days, depending on your area.
Pricing
Device Costs: Some service providers will provide a fiber-ready router device for free, however, some service providers will charge you for a wifi router. The cost of a WiFi router ranges between R 349 and R 399.
Monthly Subscription: In order to receive an Internet connection, you pay a monthly fee to your service provider. There are some service providers who offer prepaid fibre packages without any contracts.
Speed: Different packages have different speeds which will affect what you pay. Packages range from 10 Mbps to 500 Mbps. The package that you choose will be largely affected by the number of people that will need to be connected to the Internet. Connections can be asymmetrical or symmetrical.
Buyer's Guide
When looking to buy fibre, there are certain features that you need to consider.
Costs
Fibre can be more cost-effective than ADSL and LTE in the long run. You can also save costs because fibre allows connections of up to 20-50 people on the same network at a fixed cost every month. What you pay will largely depend on the fibre structure. The bigger the fibre infrastructure, the more expensive it is.
Speed
The speed of your Internet connection is important to ensure your team’s sustained productivity. To ascertain what speed you will require, consider your team’s needs and the company’s data storage needs.
Fibre Availability in Area
There are certain areas in South Africa that do not have fibre. Check if there is fibre availability in the area in which your business operates and which fibre infrastructures are available as it will affect which ISP you choose.
Support
There will be instances where you will need fibre support. Ensure that the ISP you choose offers great support and is available 24/7 in case of an emergency.
