Fibre

Fibre Internet in South Africa

Fibre internet in South Africa is relatively new, and a has long way to develop in terms of providing full access to the whole country. In a national survey taken in 2020, it was found that 74% (43.5 Million of South Africa’s 58.8 million at the time) had access to the internet from anywhere and 8% (4.8 million) had home access at home. That large gap between “anywhere” and “at home” (the two dimensions of the national survey) is down to a majority of South Africa’s population using mobile phones to access the internet rather than paying for fixed lines (ADSL or Fibre). In fact, if you look at the statistics for cellphone and landline usage, they correlate, with 89.4 of South Africans only using cellphones (and cellphone data), while 8.2 have both cellphones and landlines. 

Internet penetration is expected to reach 90% by 2027, but it’s a slow journey in terms of the type of access. The 2020 survey took quite a broad definition of internet access “households had at least one member who had access to, or used the Internet at locations such as their homes, work, place of study, internet cafés, or at public hot spots”. The highest access to the Internet through all available means was in Gauteng (85.2%), Western Cape (80.9%), and Mpumalanga (77.6%), while the lowest was in Limpopo (58.4%) and Eastern Cape (61.2%). Only 8.3% of households had access to fixed Internet at home, with the highest being in Western Cape (20.3%) and Gauteng (14.2%), and the lowest in Limpopo (1.5%) and North West (1.0%).

Fibre internet, in short, has a long way to go in connecting the whole of South Africa. But there are signs of progress. This year South Africa will benefit from the opening of the 2Africa subsea cable – the largest subsea fibre-optic cable system in existence. With faster internet speeds, improved reliability, and better connectivity, fibre internet is revolutionising the way people in South Africa use the internet. Not all areas of South Africa have access to fibre internet. While the majority of major cities and urban areas are covered, many rural areas still lack access to fibre internet due to the high cost of infrastructure development. This digital divide highlights the need for continued investment in fibre infrastructure to ensure that all South Africans have access to the benefits of high-speed internet.

Popular Fibre Networks in South Africa

Some of the most popular fibre providers in South Africa are: