Vumatel announces price hikes — and a discount for 1Gbps customers

Vumatel has announced its annual price changes, and customers on the network’s lower-speed packages will see their monthly fees increase between R20 and R50 per month from 1 May 2024.

Details of the price increases emerged after Cool Ideas began notifying customers about them on Friday.

“Cool Ideas would like to inform you of a Vumatel pricing adjustment that will be applied to your service as of 1 May 2024,” the notice reads.

“The price change is a direct result of Vumatel’s annual price adjustment; we have done our best to keep this price increase at a minimum.”

Following Cool Ideas’ notification of the price change for the 100Mbps package, MyBroadband asked the Internet service provider (ISP) for a complete list of its new pricing for Vumatel packages.

Cool Ideas customers on the symmetrical 50Mbps, 100Mbps, and 200Mbps lines will see their monthly fee increase by between R20 and R40.

Those on the asymmetrical 500Mbps package will pay R50 more per month from 1 May.

The ISP sells two asymmetrical 1Gbps packages on Vumatel’s network. Customers on these packages won’t be subject to an increase.

Instead, pricing for the 1Gbps/250Mbps line will drop by R40 per month, while customers on the 1Gbps/500Mbps package will continue to pay R2,429 per month.

MyBroadband also obtained information about Afrihost’s and Vox’s price increases on Vumatel. The ISP currently only plans to adjust pricing for three of its packages.

Afrihost customers on the symmetrical 50Mbps package will pay R757 from 1 May — up from R727.

Those on the 200/200Mbps line and the 500/200Mbps plan will see their monthly fee increase by R50.

Vox customers appear to be the hardest hit, with its price increases ranging from R20 to R100.

These prices are specific to Cool Ideas, Afrihost, and Vox. The adjustments will likely differ for other ISPs.

Cool Ideas’ and Afrihost’s price adjustments on the Vumatel Core fibre-to-the-home network are summarised in the table below.