Afrihost on Metro Nova

Metro Nova is the affordable fibre product within MetroFibre Networx's open-access network. Same physical fibre infrastructure as Metro Nexus and the rest of MetroFibre's portfolio - the same poles, ducts, cabinets and street fibre - but a deliberately leaner product range with lower headline speeds and lower wholesale rates, designed to land at sub-R450 monthly retail.

Positioning-wise, Metro Nova is MetroFibre's direct competitor to Vumatel's Vuma Reach and Frogfoot's Frogfoot Air. The market segment is identical: households who want real uncapped fibre at home but cannot or will not pay the R600 to R800 a month that the standard tiers on each network demand. Metro Nova is built into the suburbs and complexes where MetroFibre has rolled out and where the affordability question is the deciding factor in whether fibre uptake happens at all.

Afrihost on Metro Nova means Afrihost is the retail ISP and MetroFibre is the wholesale network. Afrihost owns the customer relationship - billing, support, router supply, IP allocation, the pipe out to the broader internet - while MetroFibre runs the physical line and the head-end equipment. If a fault sits on the line, Afrihost logs it with MetroFibre on your behalf. You only ever talk to Afrihost.

The Afrihost product on Metro Nova follows the standard Afrihost uncapped, unshaped, month-to-month formula. No data cap, no fair-use ceiling, no shaping at peak hours, no annual lock-in. One calendar month notice to cancel. Per-day pro-rata first month. Most Metro Nova tiers include a free Wi-Fi router (typically a TP-Link AC1200 on the entry tier, stepping up to a Wi-Fi 6 entry model on the higher Nova tiers).

Available speeds on Metro Nova typically run from a 10 Mbps entry tier through 20 Mbps, 30 Mbps and a top tier around 50 Mbps. Above 50 Mbps you are on standard Metro Nexus or higher MetroFibre tiers, which is a separate product with separate pricing. Lines on Metro Nova can be either symmetric or asymmetric depending on the specific tier - the entry tiers tend to be symmetric (10/10, 20/20), while the higher Nova tiers may run asymmetric (50/25) to keep wholesale costs down.

The honest comparison to standard MetroFibre tiers is straightforward: Metro Nova gives up the higher speed bands (no 100, 200, 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps), and in exchange the wholesale rate drops by a meaningful margin. For a household streaming Netflix on one TV, doing video calls and browsing on phones, 30 to 50 Mbps Metro Nova is genuinely all the fibre you need. Spend the saving rather than paying for headroom you will not use.

Versus Vuma Reach and Frogfoot Air, the differences are mostly footprint and ISP relationship rather than product specification. All three are real-fibre affordable products targeting the same households. Vuma Reach is the largest of the three by footprint, Frogfoot Air is well-established in specific Frogfoot strongholds, and Metro Nova fills in the gaps where MetroFibre has built. The deciding factor is almost always which of the three is actually lit at your specific address.

Install through Afrihost on Metro Nova follows the standard MetroFibre process. Order via Afrihost, who validate that Metro Nova covers your address. MetroFibre's provisioning team books a technician visit, the tech runs the drop from the street into your home, mounts the ONT and tests the line. Activation is typically 5-10 working days for a new drop. If a previous tenant's ONT is already in place, you can be online inside 3-5 working days.

Support follows the standard split: Afrihost handles everything that is not the physical line (billing, account, router, IP, DNS, peering issues), and MetroFibre handles the line itself. Afrihost's WhatsApp and ClientZone are the first stop for any fault. MetroFibre's NOC is generally responsive on weekdays; weekend coverage is comparable to other affordable-tier products in the SA market - not best-in-class, but not unusually thin either.