While fibre availability has grown and more uncapped 5G data packages have become available in recent years, another form of uncapped Internet connection is available to South Africans — fixed-wireless access (FWA).
FWA services function similarly to cellular networks in the sense that they rely on radio frequency spectrum.
However, it uses unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands (and possibly the lower 6GHz band in future).
Bluetooth and older Wi-Fi devices all use the 2.4GHz band, whereas newer devices can connect to Wi-Fi over frequencies in the 5GHz band.
Although FWA operators use many of the same frequencies as regular home Wi-Fi networks, they have a different approach and equipment, allowing them to create links over longer distances.
Connections require an antenna placed on a pole or high point on the customer’s roof.
The antenna is pointed towards radio equipment typically mounted on another high site. This can be another customer — from where your signal will be relayed — or to a radio or cellular tower (also called a mast).
This equipment is then connected to the Internet via fibre-optic cables.
The setup enables reasonable speeds over moderate distances while eliminating the need for physical cable rollouts to each customer.
It also helps minimise the impact of interference from other systems that use unlicensed spectrum.
Another significant benefit of this technology is its higher resistance to power outages than mobile networks.
Because the carrier equipment that supports it is moderately energy-efficient, less backup power is needed during outages.
In addition, FWA networks support a much smaller number of customers than the large bases of cellular networks.
Nashua Kopano business unit manager Hettie Botha recently told Engineering News that businesses were turning to FWA as a backup connection when their fibre or mobile broadband disconnected due to load-shedding.
While certainly not an exhaustive list, the companies below are among the major FWA service providers in South Africa.
Hero Wireless
Founded in 2014, Herotel was born out of consolidating numerous smaller ISPs, many of which offered wireless Internet packages.
It is now the country’s biggest FWA service provider and has also been rapidly growing its fibre network.
Herotel’s uncapped wireless packages start at R499 per month for a product with 4Mbps download speeds and 2Mbps uploads (4/2Mbps) and go up to 10/3Mbps for R999 per month.
Packages don’t come with any soft caps that throttle speeds after a certain amount of usage. Installation fees start at R1,000, and a free-to-use router is included.
Services are also available on a month-to-month basis, allowing customers to cancel at any time.
In general, Herotel is substantially more expensive than its rivals.
However, its primary target market for wireless is heavily under-connected areas, like farming communities and small towns.
That includes covering the oddly-named Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein (Two-buffaloes-shot-stone-dead-with-one-bullet-spring) farm in the North West.
Level-7 Wireless
While it has rapidly established a reputation as a fibre ISP, Level-7 began in the wireless Internet business over a decade ago.
The Centurion-based ISP has a Hellopeter rating of 4.0/5, a Google Reviews average of 4.3/5, and a generally favourable reputation on the MyBroadband Forum.
Level 7’s wireless packages start at R299 per month for a 5/2Mbps connection, and go up to R1,499 for a 25/2Mbps package.
At publication time, it also had two promotional offers — 10/2Mbps for R249 per month, and a 20/5Mbps package for R349.
Pricing will vary depending on whether customers take up a long-term contract or choose the month-to-month option.
Packages are uncapped and unshaped, with no soft caps when reaching certain usage thresholds.
Rush Network
It is best to think of the Rush Network as a backbone provider for wireless ISPs — similar to what Vumatel or Openserve are to the fibre-to-the-home industry.
The Rush open-access wireless network is available from numerous companies — including Activefibre, Cybersmart, Die Internet, Opentel, Huge Connect, and Wirulink — that deal directly with customers.
At the time of publication, the Rush Network was available to 12 million people across 4 million homes and 1.2 million businesses.
Its website lists 170 packages from all its partner ISPs available on a 12-month, 24-month, or month-to-month basis.
Prices vary from R320 to R4,248 per month, with download speeds starting at 5Mbps and going up to 100Mbps.
On the upload speed side, packages begin at 1Mbps and go up to 50Mbps.
Another benefit of its packages is their comparatively low latencies of below 20 milliseconds, better than what can normally be expected from fixed-LTE.
Supersonic Air Fibre
MTN-owned ISP Supersonic offers FWA through its Air Fibre product, which uses technology from Tarana Wireless.
The company claims this enables great noise cancellation, allowing the product to achieve fibre-like speeds and consistency, hence the name Air Fibre.
From a price-to-performance perspective, Air Fibre is a highly competitive product when measured against other FWA services, particularly on high speed packages.
Entry-level packages offer similar value to other products on the market — with a 5/1Mbps connection going for R399 and 10/2Mbps package
and go up to R999 for the 100/20Mbps option
Wirulink
Wirulink is another major FWA provider and offers three main tiers of uncapped packages — Unreal, Express, and Professional — all on the Rush Network.
The first two tiers feature contention ratios of 1:5, which means you might end up sharing capacity with other users.
Professional removes that element and adds a service-level agreement (SLA) that guarantees its advertised speed.
Wirulink’s cheapest Unreal package is R199 per month with 10/2Mbps speeds.
However, that comes with a fair usage policy that throttles speeds after consuming 300GB.
For a true uncapped service, prices start at R519 per month for an Express 5/1Mbps product and go up to R3,099 for an Express 100/20Mbps connection.
If you want zero contention and the SLA, prices start at R1,099 per month for a Professional 5/2.5Mbps package.
Loading ...
Join the conversation Autoload comments
Comments section policy: MyBroadband has a new article comments policy which aims to encourage constructive discussions. To get your comments published, make sure it is civil and adds value to the discussion.