ISPA Fibre Network Operators Survey (February 2025)
This page shows the results of a Fibre Network Operator (FNO) perception survey ISPA ran in February 2025. We are publishing the full results to be transparent, but cannot be held liable for the consequences of anyone using, republishing or misinterpreting this data.
| FNO | Ratings | Overall average | Value | Reliability | Support | Technical | Comms | Staff | Business processes | Software Systems | Open access | Optimism | Promoting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123NET | 2 | 5.9 | 8.5 | 8 | 7 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5 | 5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Balwin Fibre | 5 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.8 | 3.2 | 4 | 4 | 1.8 | 4 | 3.4 |
| Clear Access | 3 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5.7 | 7 | 6 | 4.7 | 7 | 6.3 | 6.7 |
| Comtel | 3 | 7.5 | 8 | 8 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 6.7 | 7.7 | 7.3 | 7.7 |
| Connectivity Services | 2 | 6.4 | 5 | 7 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 4 | 8 | 5.5 | 6.5 |
| Dark Fibre Africa | 27 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 5 | 4.4 | 5.9 | 5 | 5.8 | 4.9 | 4.5 | 7 | 5.3 | 5.1 |
| DNATel | 6 | 5.7 | 4.5 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.7 | 6.2 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5 |
| Evotel | 12 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 6.7 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.5 | 6.1 | 6.8 | 5.9 | 6.6 |
| FibreGeeks | 4 | 7.4 | 6 | 7 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 8.3 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.3 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 7.5 |
| FibreSuburb Networks | 3 | 6 | 6.3 | 7 | 7 | 6.3 | 6 | 6 | 4.7 | 3.3 | 7.5 | 6 | 6 |
| Frogfoot | 30 | 5.4 | 5 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 5.9 | 5.3 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5 |
| Gaia Fibonacci Fibre | 2 | 5.8 | 7.5 | 6 | 6.5 | 6 | 6 | 6.5 | 5 | 4 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5 |
| Huge TNS | 2 | 4.4 | 4 | 5 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 3 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4 | 4.5 | 5 | 4 |
| Internect (FairCape) | 1 | 8.8 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| Lightspeed (Cybersmart) | 5 | 6.9 | 6.2 | 7 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 7 | 7.3 | 6.3 | 6.5 | 6.4 | 7.5 | 7.8 |
| Lightstruck | 8 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 5 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 5.4 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 5.1 | 5 | 4.9 |
| Link Africa | 13 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 6.7 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 7.1 | 5.9 | 5.9 |
| Link Layer | 5 | 6.4 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.8 | 7.2 | 7 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 7.8 | 5.4 | 5.6 |
| Linteg Fibre | 1 | 2.6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Liquid Intelligent Technologies | 15 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 7.1 | 7.9 | 5.9 | 7.2 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6.8 | 6.5 | 7 |
| meshTelecom | 1 | 4.6 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 3 |
| Metrofibre | 22 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 7 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 6.6 | 7 | 6.4 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 6.4 | 6.4 |
| Mitsol | 3 | 6.4 | 4.7 | 7 | 7 | 6.5 | 7 | 7.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 7 | 6.5 | 6.5 |
| MTN | 10 | 4.8 | 5.5 | 5.8 | 4.4 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 5 | 4.4 | 4.6 | 5.3 | 4.3 | 4.8 |
| Netstream | 4 | 4.2 | 3.5 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 3 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 4.3 | 3.5 |
| Octotel | 17 | 7.1 | 6.8 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 7.6 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.8 | 7.9 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 7.1 |
| Open Fibre | 10 | 5.5 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 6 | 5.5 |
| Openserve | 38 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 8.2 | 6 | 6.9 | 5.7 | 6 | 6.2 | 5.9 | 7.1 | 6.1 | 7 |
| Purple Forest | 3 | 7 | 5.7 | 8.3 | 9 | 8.3 | 8 | 9 | 5.3 | 3.7 | 7 | 6.5 | 6.5 |
| Seacom FibreCo | 6 | 6.4 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 7 | 6.2 | 7 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 6.2 |
| Teralink Networks | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thinkspeed | 9 | 5.2 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 4.9 | 5.3 |
| TT Connect | 7 | 5.1 | 5 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5 | 5.6 | 4.9 | 4.7 |
| Unifibre | 1 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Vodacom South Africa | 7 | 3.7 | 5.1 | 4.6 | 3 | 3.9 | 3 | 4 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 4.6 | 3.7 | 2.9 |
| Vumatel | 24 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 4.6 | 5.6 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 4.2 | 4 |
| Waterfall Access Networks | 2 | 6.7 | 5.5 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | |
| Zoom Fibre | 7 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 5.4 | 5 | 5.8 | 5.4 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 5.3 |
Respondents: 46
List of scored characteristics
Here is the full list of the things that ISPs were asked to score:
- Value for money (line fees and port fees)
- Reliability (network uptime, packet loss and network stability)
- Support (responsiveness, resolutions times and SLAs)
- Technical proficiency (network design, MTU size and use of technologies such as Option 82 and IPv6)
- Communication (network notices and scheduled maintenance events)
- Friendliness of staff (ease of doing business, friendliness, helpfulness and how knowledgeable employees are)
- Business processes and operations (ordering, migrating, cancelling and billing)
- Software systems (the FNO’s ISP portal, ticketing system and GIS system)
- Adherence to Open Access principles (ethics, fairness, and avoidance of conflicts of interest)
- Optimism that the FNO will improve in the future
- Likelihood of promoting or recommending this FNO to other ISPs
Methodology
ISPA’s members were asked to rate FNOs on a number of characteristics. They could score each item from 0-10, or mark not applicable. Not all ISPs rated all FNOs. Members were asked to rate only the FNOs they had some experience with.
The table shows the average score for each metric for each FNO. No adjustments were made to exclude ratings based on standard deviation. In plain language, this means that a respondent could choose to award an FNO a perfect 10 or a perfect 0 for everything, and we didn’t stop that from happening. This is, after all, a perception survey.
Consequently, the ratings for FNOs who were only scored by a small number of ISPs are less likely to reflect the opinions of all of the ISPs using those FNOs. If you are a journalist referencing this data, please bear that in mind and practise responsible data interpretation.
Are you an FNO?
If you are an FNO, we encourage you to ask your ISP customers to participate in the next survey. We’d also love to chat to you about ISPA’s Best Practice Recommendations for FNOs and ISPs. There are plenty of suggestions in that document for ways to make your services more accessible and attractive to the ISPs who sell them to customers.
If you are an FNO and you are not listed in the survey, please get in touch with us so that we can include you in the next one. There is a Contact ISPA button at the top right of this page.
Are you a fibre user or a residential property owner?
Just as consumers have a choice of ISPs to buy internet access from, so they also increasingly have a choice of FNO. If you are using this table to inform your choice of service provider, please bear in mind that it is a survey of ISPs’ perceptions of FNOs. These scores are not objective measurements of an FNO’s quality of service, or anything else.
