Openserve announces fibre speed upgrades

Telkom’s fixed-line division Openserve will increase speeds on most of its fibre-to-home (FTTH) packages from 1 April 2023.

Openserve said the changes showcased its commitment to providing a high-quality and reliable service to its channel partners and users of its network.

“Our fibre speed upgrade is one of the many ways Openserve keeps up with the latest technology in the telecommunications industry,” said Openserve chief commercial officer Phila Dube.

“We believe that by upgrading our speeds, end-users will have an even better experience of our fibre network.”

On its main FTTH network, the new entry-level download and upload speeds will be 40Mbps and 20Mbps, respectively, up from 25Mbps and 10Mbps.

Openserve will increase its symmetric 25Mbps product’s download and upload speeds to 40Mbps.

The two 50Mbps packages will also see their downloads pushed up to 75Mbps.

The asymmetric option’s uploads will double from 25Mbps to 50Mbps, while the symmetric option’s upload will increase in alignment with the download speed.

Those on the 100Mbps packages will be bumped up to a 150Mbps download speed.

The symmetric option’s uploads will increase to the same speed, while the asymmetric product’s 50Mbps upload will jump to 75Mbps.

Those on the 250Mbps are getting a relatively modest 50Mbps download speed increase and 25Mbps upload speed bump.

However, they are better off than those on the top-end 500Mbps package, which will remain as is.

Affordable Openserve Web Connect included in changes

Finally, Openserve’s two Web Connect products, available in lower-income suburbs, will also get speed upgrades.

The 10/5Mbps package will change to a 20/10Mbps product, while the old 20/10Mbps option will be upgraded to 30/10Mbps speeds.

The table below summarises the changes in speeds on Openserve’s FTTH network, effective from 1 April 2023.

At the time of writing, it was unclear whether there were any changes in Openserve’s wholesale pricing to Internet service providers (ISPs).

When Openserve previously changed line speeds, it explicitly stated that these came without additional charges to ISPs.

Should the FNO increase wholesale prices, it will follow in the footsteps of Frogfoot, MetroFibre, and Octotel, who recently increased fibre speeds while also hiking wholesale prices on some of their lines.

It would be up to ISPs to decide whether they will increase prices charged to end-customers or absorb a hike if this is the case for Openserve too.

MyBroadband asked Openserve and several major ISPs whether the FNO was changing wholesale FTTH pricing, but did not receive feedback by the time of publication.

Now read: Frogfoot charges R750 to downgrade after hiking prices