Fibre warning for South Africa

 ·18 Jan 2025

Many South African fibre internet consumers are experiencing issues with line transfers, leading to increased delays for installations.

According to the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), Fibre Network Operators (FNOs), such as Vumatel and Openserve, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Afrihost, MWEB and Supersonic, handle line transfers well, while others are not paying attention.

High-speed broadband is delivered to consumers across fibre optic cables or ‘lines.’

However, the fibre line will sometimes need to switch from one ISP to another, which is referred to as a ‘line transfer.’

Although this can happen when one ISP is providing a poor service, it mostly happens when someone moves, an ISP or customer provides the wrong address or the FNO is not tracking all the locations that they have infrastructure.

“Regardless of the reason for a line needing to change ISPs, FNOs are often asked to activate a service for one ISP when a different ISP is already linked to that line. An FNO or ISP might also confuse two similar addresses and the wrong client is disconnected from the line,” said ISPA.

“Historically, ISPA and SA’s regulatory authorities have received persistent complaints relating to line transfers. Consumers regularly complain about the process being slow, involving penalties and incorrect customer disconnections, amongst other systems-related issues.”

The latest recommendations for FNO best practice include:

  • Double-check the address for any migration or new installation.
  • Do offer multiple services over the same fibre line, if technically feasible.
  • Do not have unnecessary notice periods for line migrations.
  • Do distinguish between activation fees and installation fees for line migrations.
  • Do cover the possibility and consequences of line transfers in agreements with ISPs.
  • Do indicate the number of previous migrations of a particular line.

When it comes to ISPs, ISPA recommends always double-checking the address for a migration or new installation.

When it comes to managing disputes, ISPA also recommended that unless there is a process in place to resolve conflict from line migrations, the new customer at a location may be unfairly blocked from obtaining a service.

An FNO must still be cautious when breaching an ISP’s access to a line, as this could place the FNO in breach of their service agreement with that ISP.

Nevertheless, speaking with BusinessTech, MTN Fibre/Supersonic, which is a member of ISPA, has not seen a significant increase in line release-related issues with other ISPs.

It added that 98% of line transfers are completed successfully without the need for a new Optical Network Terminal (ONT), which FNOs install.

“We remain committed to continuous improvement and to ensuring that the process remains as seamless as possible for all our customers,” said Supersonic.


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