Business Fibre Deals (FTTB)

 

Business Fibre Deals (Typical Pricing)

ISP	FIBRE NETWORK	SPEED DOWNLOAD	SPEED UPLOAD	PRICE PER MONTH
Vox (Premium Business)	*Selected Areas	10Mbps	10Mbps	R1953 x 12 months
BitCo	DFA (Dark Fibre Africa)	100Mbps	20Mbps	R3899 x 36 months
iConnect	Liquid Buildings	100Mbps	100Mbps	R3958 x 24 months
BitCo	DFA (Dark Fibre Africa)	100Mbps	100Mbps	R5649 x 24 months
MetroFibre	DFA Helios	100Mbps	100Mbps	R6500 x 24 months
Seacom	DFA Duct Bank	100Mbps	100Mbps	R12199 x 24 months

*Prices are highly dependent on your business location and fibre network. These prices should be taken as a rough guide.

All About Business Fibre In South Africa

Everything you’ve always wanted to know about business fibre in South Africa.

Business Fibre Deals (FTTB) FAQ:

• Why Get Business Fibre

  Business fibre, or FTTB (Fibre to the Business) has certain advantages compared to fibre you would get at home (FTTH). The biggest being that the bandwidth, contention ratio or internet packages, is significantly higher in service levels and consistency.

  Meaning you won't reach your cap (soft cap) as quickly. And, your speeds won't slow as demands are put on the network. Not all 'uncapped products' are the same, there are things like FUP (Fair Usage Policies) as well as Contention-Ratio.

  Fair Usage Policy: Just because your shiny new fibre internet package says it’s uncapped in reality there are some "soft usage limits". After you have used let say 200GB or -->300GB for the month, your line will still be uncapped but throttled, i.e your high-speed connection will now act like a slow speed connection.

  Contention Ratio: This is how many people are "sharing" an upstream-line. For FTTH (home fibre connections) it’s usually 10:1 or 5:1 or even 20:1 if you really got a bad deal.

  For most of the FTTB (business fibre connections) the contention ratio is usually 1:1. Less sharing means better overall and consistent internet experience.
  Businesses also usually have multiple people connecting to one fibre line, whereas at home it may be a handful of people. Business fibre therefore needs to be able to cater to the demand of multiple users without falling over, or slowing down.

  Usually one can buy home packages up to 200 Mbps for FTTH, but business fibre packages are often much higher, on average 200 Mbps for medium to large size businesses and easily up to 10 Gbps for very large corporations.

  Business fibre connections also have a static IP address, instead of a dynamic IP address that is being refreshed every 24 hours by the FTTH providers.

• Who Qualifies for Business Fibre

  Usually small, medium and large businesses. If you have 10 employees or more that require stable internet to perform their function concurrently, you probably need business fibre. This may also include schools, hospitals, call centres and even large, managed office blocks.

  Business fibre also has a minimum 2 year contract period commitment, as well as a set-up fee that typically starts at R5,000, but varies on service provider, location and size of business.

• FTTB vs FTTH vs LTE/WiFi

  You may have come across these terms when looking at getting fibre internet.

  FTTB: Fibre To The Business is the technology you want to look into if you have 20 or more employees that require stable internet. The fibre cabling is also brought directly to your business building and is dedicated to your business.

  FTTH: Fibre To The Hom-->e is the internet most people have at their homes. The fibre cabling usually ends in a node close to your home, within your street or neighbourhood. A further point of installation then needs to bring the connection to your home and the origin point is usually shared in the neighbourhood for a particular network provider.

  LTE-WiFi: Long-Term Evolution is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals. LTE devices are usually all-in-one devices that act as a router and are independent from plugging into a fibre cable. Much like your cellphone uses a SIM card to receive data and can be used anywhere, LTE devices also receive data through typically 4G technology, but unlike your mobile phone, you can’t really carry them with you. For some devices you can probably move them to different locations up to 3 times per year, with the caveat that your chosen provider has signal, or coverage, in the area.

• Why Is Business Fibre More Expensive Than Home Fibre

  Put simply, a business has higher performance considerations and typically needs more consecutive active connections than your average household. This in turn means that business fibre needs to perform consistently and unwaveringly - in short, it cannot be throttled like household fibre can be when more people are on the network, as it would lead to poor business performance.

  Business fibre is typically a dedicated line with a SLA performance contract. This is why business fibre costs more than residential fibre.

• Business Fibre Prices South Africa

  Business fibre can start from as little as R2,000 per month. It is a customised service based on the size of your business. Business fibre is also scalable and can grow as your business grows. It is also largely dependent on whether there is coverage in your area.

  There is typically a set-up fee and a minimum contract period commitment of 2 years. All contracts include a business fibre router.

  Check our business fibre coverage map to see if it's available in your area, then contact us for a personalised quote.

  MyBroadband also recently did an article about the price of business fibre in South Africa.

• Benefits of Business Fibre

  If you’re a medium to large business needing more control over the consistency of your internet, switching to business fibre only has advantages.

  • Always-on, fast and reliable connection
  • Guaranteed 99% operational uptime
  • Fully uncapped and synchronous Internet
  • Uncontended bandwidth - no traffic throttling.
    1:1 Contention Ratio
  • Static IP address.
  • Easily upgradeable
  • 24 hour on call business support

• Who Are The Providers Of Business Fibre In South Africa

  There are a handful of ISPs and FNO in the fibre business space, and as usual it's highly dependent on your location. Use our Business Fibre Coverage Map to see the prices in your area.

  The typical business fibre providers will be BitCo, DFA, Openserve, iConnect and Seacom.

• Typical Service Level Agreements for Business Fibre

  • Minimum commitment period - 1 years
  • Business router - service may or may not include a managed business fibre router
  • Fees - once off configuration and installation fees billed separate to monthly package.
  • Support - Most business fibre packages include 24/7 support service
  • Fail-over options - larger packages may include fail-over options for increased redundancy
  • Temporary fibre - interim solutions may be optional while fibre is being deployed (Line of Sight dependent)
  • Dedicated IP Address - 1 public IP included. Multiple public IP’s available on request (Additional Charges may apply)