A new report by Africa Analysis has found that the fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) market in South Africa is growing quickly, and that growth has even accelerated in the recent past.

The ICT research firm said in its “SA FTTB Market Update” report for the third quarter of 2023, which forms part of its fibre access market tracking programme, that there is a marked uptick in interest by companies in fibre connectivity.

“This can be interpreted as a sign of positive business market recovery after the Covid-19 period,” Africa Analysis said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company said key findings of the report include:

Market growth: By the end of September 2023, the FTTB market reached over 243 000 active endpoints, registering a 6.4% year-on-year growth rate. Some two-thirds of these links consisted of best-effort (contended) connections, with the balance being dedicated (quality of service) connections.
Best-effort connections growth: The contended best-effort connectivity products continued to demonstrate much stronger growth than the dedicated links. This is driven mainly by increasing uptake of fibre connectivity by smaller companies and growing adoption of cloud services and SD-WAN, where best effort (broadband-type connections) is sufficient for most of an organisation’s sites.
Market revenue: The FTTB retail market achieved annual revenue of R10.1-billion (September 2022 to September 2023), underscoring the economic significance of this sector in a changing telecommunications landscape.
Declining ARPL: Declining retail prices of many of the low-end fibre products are contributing to market growth but also have a diluting effect on the average revenue per line. This has seen a steady year-on-year decline and is expected to continue declining.

Africa Analysis said the FTTB market is expected to continue on a growth path, reaching over 300 000 connections by the end of 2027. In particular, the best-effort connectivity segment of the market will show much stronger growth than the more expensive dedicated connectivity. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media