A group of smaller fibre network operators (FNOs) have scored ahead of most of South Africa’s established players in the latest perception survey from the Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa), the officially recognised representative body for the country’s internet industry.

Ispa surveys its member ISPs roughly every six months to gauge how they rate the FNOs they buy wholesale access from. Because ISPs sit between the FNOs and the consumer, those ratings serve as a proxy for the service quality reaching households. The latest round, conducted in February 2026, drew 406 ratings from 45 ISPs, up from 355 a year earlier.

Among the smaller operators, Lightspeed (Cybersmart) led on 7.1, followed by Open Fibre and Lightstruck on 7.0 each, Evotel and Seacom FibreCo on 6.9 each, and WeCom on 6.6. Those averages would place all six between the top two of the country’s eight most-rated networks – Octotel topped the table on 7.5 and the next-largest, Openserve, scored 6.5 – had the smaller operators been rated by as many ISPs.

“Potential investors and ISPs looking to broaden their service offering, geographic reach or exposure to a more innovative corporate culture should take note of these up-and-coming fibre superstars,” said Ispa spokesman Ant Brooks in a statement. “When smaller firms start outperforming their bigger industry compatriots, that’s something to watch and it bodes well for future service levels.”

How the scores work

The headline number for each operator is an average out of 10. Each participating ISP rates only the FNOs it actually does business with, scoring every one against 11 separate metrics: reliability, technical proficiency, staff friendliness, adherence to open-access principles, value for money, communications, support, business processes, software systems, likelihood of recommending the network, and optimism that it will improve. Each metric is marked from 0 to 10, or flagged as not applicable.

An operator’s overall score is simply the mean of all those individual ratings, across every metric and every ISP that rated it. So Octotel’s 7.5 means that, on average, ISPs scored it 7.5 out of 10 across the board; higher is better, and the average across all networks was 6.2. Ispa applies no outlier adjustment, which it acknowledges openly: it does not strip out unusually high or low ratings, so “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”.

That caveat is key. Lightspeed’s 7.1 came from 11 ISPs and Octotel’s 7.5 from 18, whereas Openserve was rated by 38 and MetroFibre by 31. The larger the pool of raters, the more confidence can be placed in the number – which is why Ispa ranks the eight most-rated networks separately and treats the smaller operators’ strong showings as promising rather than proven.

The eight FNOs that drew the most responses were Octotel, Openserve, MetroFibre, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Frogfoot, Link Africa, Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel. Octotel held on to top spot – a position it first claimed when it displaced MetroFibre as the highest-rated large operator in the August 2024 survey – and nudged its score up again. Openserve and MetroFibre kept the next two places despite slight drops, and Liquid held steady in fourth.

Frogfoot, Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel each recorded their best results in three years, with Vumatel the single most improved network year on year. Link Africa, by contrast, slipped to its lowest score since the survey began in 2023.

FNO	Aug 2023	Feb 2024	Aug 2024	Feb 2025	Feb 2026	Change y/y
Octotel	6.8	6.5	7.1	7.4	7.5	+0.1
Openserve	7.0	6.1	6.6	6.7	6.5	-0.2
MetroFibre	6.8	6.9	6.5	6.7	6.4	-0.3
Liquid Intelligent Technologies	4.7	5.9	6.7	6.1	6.1	0.0
Frogfoot	6.3	5.3	5.4	5.6	6.1	+0.5
Link Africa	5.9	6.8	6.2	6.1	5.8	-0.3
Dark Fibre Africa	5.8	5.0	5.3	4.9	5.8	+0.9
Vumatel	6.0	5.2	4.7	4.6	5.6	+1.0
Average	6.2	6.0	6.1	6.0	6.2	+0.2

Overall scores out of 10 for the eight most-rated FNOs. Change y/y compares February 2025 with February 2026. Source: Ispa FNO Perception Survey, February 2026

The smaller challengers

Six operators rated by fewer ISPs posted averages that would slot in among the leaders. Ispa describes them as networks to watch as potential challengers to the established eight as they grow.

Smaller operator	Average score	No of ISPs rating
Lightspeed (Cybersmart)	7.1	11
Open Fibre	7.0	12
Lightstruck	7.0	10
Evotel	6.9	8
Seacom FibreCo	6.9	8
WeCom	6.6	11

Smaller operators whose average scores exceed most of the big eight, with the number of ISPs that rated each. Source: Ispa FNO Perception Survey, February 2026

What ISPs value, and what comes next

Ispa said the two networks rated by the most ISPs, Openserve and MetroFibre, also scored well on open-access policies, which it argued shows that opening a network to more service providers encourages them to use it. The four metrics ISPs cared about most were unchanged from a year earlier: reliability, staff friendliness, technical proficiency and adherence to open access. None of the overall scores has fallen since 2025.

The association’s standing advice to FNOs was also unchanged: streamline support for ISPs by putting clear processes and adequate staff in place to resolve the common issues that affect end users. It is a theme Ispa has pressed before, having previously told fibre operators to give consumers more choice and warned that some networks make it difficult for customers to switch ISPs.

“ISPs are rating more FNOs over time and this is very positive. It suggests that ISPs are steadily using more fibre operators to deliver more services and the implications for free competition are clear,” Brooks said.

The full table of results for all FNOs surveyed is published on the Ispa website, alongside a detailed analysis of the February 2026 survey.