The South African Fibre to the Home (FTTH) space is getting very interesting very quickly. Not so long ago, there was just a handful of suburbs that had gathered the wherewithal to install the required infrastructure. Today, FTTH prices are hurtling ever closer to price parity with traditional copper-based lines.
The latest example of this accelerating competitiveness arrived on Tuesday courtesy of a press release from MWEB announcing plans to slash its FTTH rates as of 1 January 2016. The price cuts are predominantly aimed at existing MWEB customers in Vumatel areas. In addition to price cuts, MWEB also says that it’ll be pushing up cap size limits.
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Read more: Investec gets into the fibre game with Vumatel investment
Here’s an outline of the new price plans:
“We are partnering with both big and small FTTH installation companies around the country, to bring world class fibre Internet into South African homes and we are continually working to ensure both our existing customers and new customers are able to get connected. We have homes connected with FTTH technology across the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape,” says MWEB head of products Rihana Hoosain.
According to Hoosain, existing MWEB customers will immediately be upgraded to the new plans.
Read more: MWEB drops prices of its ADSL, FTTH offerings
Hoosain also announced that MWEB would be launching partnerships with Frogfoot and Fibrehoods in a number of areas such as Constantia, Parkview, Craighall and Century City, as well as launching new products in the coming weeks.
According to the MWEB bigwig, the ISP has seen a marked increase in the number of people converting to and interested in FTTH as general awareness about the availability of fibre grows in the South African market.
Tuesday’s announcement comes just months after it last announced a price cut. Partnering with Vumatel probably isn’t the worst idea either, given the investment it recently received from Investec.
