Best and worst fibre networks in South Africa ranked by ISPs
Octotel, Liquid Intelligent Intelligent Technologies, and MetroFibre are the major fibre network operators (FNOs) with the most positive perceptions among Internet service providers (ISPs) in South Africa.
This is according to an FNO perception survey conducted by the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (Ispa).
The 44 ISPs surveyed submitted a combined 321 ratings of 38 FNOs.
Of these 38 FNOs, Octotel, Liquid Intelligent Networks, Openserve, MetroFibre, Link Africa, Frogfoot, Dark Fibre Africa, and Vumatel were most frequently rated, indicating the major players in the market.
Ispa said ratings have slightly improved relative to their previous FNO perception survey in February.
“Overall, there has been a slight improvement in ISP perceptions of FNOs over the last six months,” said Ispa chair Sasha Booth-Beharilal.
“While the trend is encouraging, it’s clear this upward trajectory needs speeding up.”
Of the eight major FNOs in the country, Octotel came first in the overall rankings with a score of 7.1; second was Liquid, scoring 6.7; and Openserve came in third with a score of 6.6.
Telkom’s wholesale fixed-line division, Openserve, scored highest for value for money (7.3), with Octotel (6.8) and Metrofibre (6.7) coming in second and third, respectively.
Openserve was also found to be the most reliable network operator of the eight, followed by Octotel and Liquid.
However, Openserve dropped in the rankings when it came to support, technical proficiency, and communication with ISPs.
Octotel scored the highest in support (7.4), communication (6.9), business processes (6.8), software systems (7.9), and the likelihood of being recommended to other ISPs (7.1).
South Africa’s biggest fibre-to-the-home network provider, Vumatel, scored the lowest of the major networks with a score of 4.7.
Other large networks ranked poorly were Vodacom and MTN, receiving average scores below five.
The table below shows the average scores across all metrics for the top 10 FNOs in Ispa’s perception survey with over eight ratings.
| Rank | FNO | Average score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Octotel | 7.1 |
| 2 | Liquid Intelligent Technologies | 6.7 |
| 3 | Openserve | 6.6 |
| 4 | Metrofibre | 6.5 |
| 5 | Link Africa | 6.2 |
| 6 | Frogfoot | 5.4 |
| 7 | Dark Fibre Africa | 5.3 |
| 8 | MTN | 4.8 |
| 9 | Vumatel | 4.7 |
| 10 | Vodacom | 3.7 |
Ispa noted that reliability, technical competence, staff, and support are the best-perceived characteristics of South African FNOs.
On the other hand, the industry representative body highlighted software systems and business processes as the least favourable characteristics.
For FNOs hoping to improve their scores, Booth-Beharilal said they should streamline the support they provide to ISPs.
“In particular, there must be processes and adequate staff capacity to resolve the common issues that ultimately impact end-user customer service.”
The table below from Ispa shows the scores of all 38 FNOs included in the survey. An interactive version allowing users to sort the FNOs by the measured metrics is available on Ispa’s website.
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