The cheapest MWeb fibre deals under R500/month

This is computed at every site build from MWeb's live catalogue as we track it, not typed by hand - so it moves the moment a price changes instead of going stale. Each row is the cheapest sub-R500 tier on that network; several networks sell faster tiers too, priced above R500 and covered on the main MWeb fibre deals page.

"Standard price once promo ends" reflects the shared MWeb promo terms recorded in our catalogue: most promotional lines revert after roughly three months, Vumatel's after roughly four. Lines marked "no promo - flat rate" don't carry a step-up at all.

Cheapest in rand doesn't mean cheapest per Mbps - a slower line can cost more for what it delivers than a faster one just above it. Ranked by price per Mbps, lowest (best value) first:

FibreSuburb Networks's R279 line is the cheapest sticker price on the list, but at 5 Mbps its R55.80/Mbps is not automatically the best value - check the per-Mbps column above against whichever tier your household actually needs before assuming the lowest rand figure wins.

A sub-R500 sticker price is only the full story if it holds for the year. FibreSuburb Networks's R279/month line has no promotional period, so its first-year cost is a flat R3 348.

Compare that with Metro Nexus's 30/30 Mbps line: it advertises R379/month, cheaper up front than FibreSuburb Networks - but that rate only holds for three months before reverting to R529. The real first-year cost is R5 898, not the R4 548 you'd get by multiplying the promo rate by 12 - a R1 350 gap between what the sticker price implies and what actually gets billed.

Most of these packages also carry a R249 once-off order processing fee, billed on the first invoice - MWeb's own terms confirm the entry Openserve Web Connect and Vuma Reach lines are among the few that don't. Budget for it separately; it isn't folded into either total above.

• The promo cliff. 11 of the 15 sub-R500 prices above step up after three or four months - see the table's "standard price" column before committing to a household budget.
• New-installs-only tiers. Several of the cheapest rows are flagged "new installs only" in MWeb's own terms - an existing MWeb customer regrading down usually can't claim that specific promo.
• Symmetry. Asymmetric lines (upload well below download) are fine for browsing, less so for big uploads or video calls.
• Coverage. The price means nothing if that network isn't on your street. Check first on MWeb coverage.
• The once-off fee. Budget for the R249 order processing fee on your first invoice, where it applies.

None of the 15 networks above are useful if none of them reach the address in question - check MWeb coverage or the wider fibre coverage checker first, since a completely different network may be the only thing actually lit on that street. A household that has already outgrown a sub-R500 line - several people, multiple 4K streams, heavy uploads - should compare MWeb's own 50-200 Mbps range or another ISP on the same network rather than forcing a cheap tier to do a job it wasn't built for; see the full MWeb fibre deals list for those. And anyone whose cheapest available option is one of the 11 promotional lines above should re-check the math in the worked example first - the sticker price is not the year-one price.