Best uncapped Internet for people who want to escape fibre hikes

South African fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) users who want to save money on their monthly Internet bill can take up a fixed-LTE or fixed-5G service instead.

Several fibre network operators (FNOs) have hiked or will increase their wholesale fees in the first half of 2025.

In some cases, the biggest increases on a percentage basis will be on entry-level packages with speeds between 20Mbps and 50Mbps.

One FNO in particular will be making life much more expensive for its less affluent users — Zoom Fibre.

Multiple Internet service providers have notified MyBroadband that the company is dropping its 15Mbps, 20Mbps, and 30Mbps products completely.

Customers on these packages will be force-upgraded to 50Mbps with significant price hikes.

For customers with the entry-level 15Mbps package at one major ISP, prices are going to increase by R450.

In recent years, many other FNOs also discontinued line speeds below 20Mbps and forced customer to higher end products, but Zoom Fibre’s adjustments are unusually steep.

Major FNOs like Vumatel and Openserve have also stopped upgrading line speeds with price changes. In the past, the changes would often include a speed benefit.

While FTTH is generally the most reliable and consistent broadband connection type available to residential customers in South Africa, there are alternatives with similar performance.

Major mobile networks including Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom have invested substantially in improving their infrastructure to support uncapped fixed-LTE and fixed-5G products.

In many cases, the coverage areas for these products overlap with those of fibre networks.

MyBroadband compiled the fastest and best-value uncapped fixed-LTE and fixed-5G packages in South Africa for under R500 to summarise some of the options available.

The most affordable options were two packages at R295 per month.

The first is the MTN Home Starter package, which supports speeds up to 10Mbps.

However, this is only available for the first 100GB consumption in the month, after which the fair usage policy (FUP) throttles speeds down to 512Kbps.

For the same price, users can sign up for an RSAWeb package that also runs on MTN’s network with speeds up to 20Mbps for the first 50GB consumption in the month.

The FUP is less severe on this package, with speeds dropping to 4Mbps for the rest of the month after that initial consumption.

Many of the other packages we found may also not be suited to extremely heavy data users.

The best FUP was on Telkom’s entry-level fixed-5G offering.

While not as fast as the 500Mbps Vodacom and MTN packages available from Axxess, its 40Mbps speed is more than sufficient for many small households.

Every month, it allows for up to 1TB consumption at this speed, before dropping to 4Mbps for the next 50GB and then 2Mbps for the rest of the month.

Although it must be taken on a 24-month contract, the package includes a router.

The table below summarises the fastest and best-value fixed-LTE and fixed-5G products from major ISPs in South Africa.