Fibre destroys fixed-5G in uncapped home Internet price comparison

Fibre is often far more affordable than fixed-5G in South Africa, and it doesn’t implement restrictions like those imposed by fair usage policies (FUPs).

South Africans can get a 40Mbps fibre line for as little as R389 monthly, while the most affordable fixed-5G package costs R449 monthly.

MyBroadband compared uncapped fixed-5G packages to comparable fibre products regarding pricing and limitations.

We split the packages into speed categories — under 50Mbps, 50 to 100Mbps, 100Mbps to 200Mbps, and best-effort.

It should be noted that the term “best-effort” primarily applies to fixed-5G packages with no speed restrictions.

In July 2023, an Analytico analysis of MyBroadband Speedtest app data revealed that Vodacom offered the highest average 5G speeds in South Africa at 246.85Mbps.

Using this as a benchmark, we compared “best-effort” fixed-5G packages to fibre lines with speeds ranging from 200Mbps to 300Mbps.

It should be noted that the fixed-5G package — Axxess’s Standard 5G plan — offers best-effort speeds, meaning download speeds will likely exceed 40Mbps.

However, the plan includes a hefty FUP, where customers will get full speeds until they have consumed 300GB of data, after which speeds are throttled to 2Mbps.

On the other hand, the fibre package is truly uncapped with no usage thresholds. This holds true across all the fibre packages listed in the article.

In the best-effort category, three fixed-5G plans — including the Axxess Standard 5G package mentioned earlier — are more affordable than the cheapest 200Mbps+ fibre package.

These include Supersonic’s Home 5G Lite package and Axxess’s Pro 5G product, both of which impose FUPs.

Supersonic’s package will let users benefit from best-effort speeds until they have consumed 400GB of data. After that, speeds are reduced to 2Mbps until the end of the billing period. It costs R699 per month.

Axxess Pro 5G subscribers have a slightly higher usage threshold at 600GB, after which speeds are also reduced to 2Mbps. These subscribers pay R759 per month.

In comparison, the most affordable fibre packages in the category are both priced at R897 per month.

At this price, Afrihost sells an asymmetrical 240Mbps package from Frogfoot and a symmetrical 250Mbps line available on the MetroFibre Nexus and Nova networks.

Rain is the only fixed-5G provider that doesn’t implement FUPs on its products.

It sells its base Rain One product, offering download speeds up to 30Mbps, for R595. Customers can increase speeds to 60Mbps and 100Mbps+ by paying R200 and R400 more per month, respectively.

The table below compares uncapped fixed-5G and fibre prices across various speed categories regarding pricing and limitations.