Is there fibre in my area? How to use online coverage maps to check

Fibre has become the staple of household internet across the globe. It provides users with consistent high-speed access to the web for increasingly affordable prices.

If you’d like to know if you have access to fibre in your area, check our quick and handy guide below.

How to find out if there is fibre in my area?

There are a variety of sites you can use to check if you have fibre internet in your area. Firstly, most ISPs sport handy fibre coverage maps on their websites to help you find out about fibre availability in your area.

All you need to do is simply type in your address and it will inform you if you have fibre internet in your area.

Most ISP websites will provide you with a list of available packages from various fibre providers they’ve partnered with.

• Web Africa has a handy coverage map that lets you toggle between fibre, ADSL and LTE, allowing you to see all available web access options in your area.
• Afrihost’s coverage map will provide you with a shortlist of available fibre packages in your area from their preferred recommended fibre provider.
• Cool Ideas, currently one of the top fibre network providers in South Africa, features a search tool that allows you to toggle between home fibre and business fibre deals as part of its search function.

But, what if you’re only interested in one specific fibre network provider?

Fortunately, most fibre provider websites also boast a coverage map or search tool. Use this to see if they operate in your area of interest.

Openserve provides you with a coverage map that will also highlight the fastest available packages in your area.

Alternatively, if you have a specific internet speed in mind, the website also provides you with an option to choose between residential and business internet packages. This is accompanied by an option to choose the specific speed range you’re interested in.

Similarly, the Vumatel website features an address search function that will inform you if they operate in your area.

If they do, you can click the “check available packages” option. You will have to confirm your address again at this point. This makes it a bit more of a long-winded option to check fibre network coverage.

In any case, however, most of these fibre network providers’ dedicated websites, including Frogfoot and Octotel, will provide you with some form of online fibre coverage maps.

Image: Pexels – Junior Teixeira