Five years after its founding, Openserve has established itself as South Africa’s leading network infrastructure provider and is committed to delivering the ultimate broadband experience and offering even more value to its customers.

The company has more than 2.4 million households covered with fibre either directly to the home (FTTH) or to the cabinet (FTTC), with a national coverage spanning metros, urban areas, small towns and townships. But more than having the widest footprint across South Africa, it will in the near future announce exciting fibre expansion plans to provide FTTH services to the entire FTTC footprint. Openserve continues to work relentlessly at offering the customer the best value and best network experience.

With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown, there was a significant demand for reliable Internet connectivity, and this has continued to grow with more people working and learning from home indefinitely. Openserve understood more than ever how critical it was to ensure that as many South Africans as possible got connected and stayed connected.

During the peak period of the pandemic, Openserve doubled speeds for free on its network, introduced symmetrical speeds to its fibre portfolio and increased sync profiles. Openserve even offered numerous incentives, including discounted or free installations.

“We launched and enhanced our various offerings to provide customers with affordable Internet connectivity options through our Openserve Fibre Connect, Openserve Pure Connect and Openserve Copper Connect product suites,” the company said.

Price cuts, upgrades

In addition to this, from 1 March 2021 Openserve introduced further speed upgrades and price changes on its Openserve Fibre Connect and Openserve Copper Connect product offerings. Price reductions for Openserve Pure Connect were introduced on 1 April 2021.

“As part of the speed upgrades, there are no additional costs from Openserve impacting Internet service provider partners directly related to this initiative as we are offering our ISP partners incentives to enable them to easily upgrade their customers,” it said.

In support of Openserve’s fibre roll-out strategy – that of providing high-quality, future-proof broadband connectivity to all customers – the company is continuing to upgrade customers in its fibre footprint from their current technology onto fibre. This will improve efficiencies and allow more South Africans to have access to affordable broadband. Openserve is also offering further incentives to ease the transition process onto the Openserve fibre network for the impacted customers.

“We are encouraged by the positive feedback and excitement of our ISP partners on these new propositions,” it said.

Fixed broadband pricing vs mobile

The price per gigabyte of data that end users pay over fixed broadband connections compares favourably to mobile data offerings, even when compared to limited-time promotional offers from mobile providers.

The table below compares the per-gigabyte price a user on Openserve fibre would pay on a typical uncapped package from an ISP to a typical promotional mobile data deal. This example is based on current ISP pricing of uncapped packages in the market. The price-per-gigabyte rate over Openserve’s fixed broadband lines is expected to drop even more once the price changes take effect and are passed on to end users. In addition to competitive per-gigabyte rates, fixed broadband users generally have a more reliable and consistent user experience than mobile broadband users.

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*It is important to note that on Openserve fibre, the user could use more than 1TB resulting in an even lower per Gig rate.

The most value, beyond affordable pricing

Openserve launched a self-service app in November 2020. This app allows customers to manage their broadband network connection and Internet service at a push of a button.

The Openserve Connect app, which is available for Android and iOS, puts self-service capabilities in the hands of the customer, allowing potential and existing customers to engage with Openserve directly. It’s a platform that puts the customer’s connected home as a priority. Download Openserve Connect for Android or iOS, or get it in the Huawei AppGallery

“As the leader in open-access broadband connectivity in South Africa, we are committed to finding new and innovative ways of enabling the flow of information and will continue to work closely with our ISP partners to ensure that together we enable a world-class connected experience for the customer at their home,” Openserve said.

“We encourage all customers on Openserve infrastructure, copper or fibre, to download the Openserve Connect app to check whether their line has been upgraded as per our communication. The app has also become a channel through which customers can influence the future roll-out out of fibre in their areas by registering their interest on the app.”

Openserve remains focused on connecting as many South Africans as possible to its network and to enhancing their Internet experience through its reliable connectivity and high-speed infrastructure.