Octotel has displaced Metrofibre as the highest-rated network among the top eight fibre network operators (FNOs), according to Internet industry representative body ISPA’s latest FNO perception survey.

ISPA, which surveys its members on a six-monthly basis to gauge their perception of South Africa’s FNOs, reports that 44 Internet service providers (ISPs) responded to the August 2024 FNO perception survey, a decline from 50 participants in February 2024 and 48 in August 2023.

However, ISPA highlights that the responding ISPs provided 321 ratings for 38 FNOs, with each ISP rating an average of 7.3 networks, an increase from 4.8 in February 2024 and 5.8 in August 2023, which suggests that ISPs are using more FNOs than they were a year ago.

“Overall, there has been a slight improvement in ISP perceptions of FNOs over the last six months. While the trend is encouraging, it is clear this upwards trajectory needs speeding up,” says ISPA chairperson Sasha Booth-Beharilal.

ISPA’s report highlights the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each of the major FNOs, with the best perceived characteristics being reliability, technical competence, staff and support. Software systems are the least favourably viewed overall, followed by business processes.

The survey found that Liquid Intelligent Networks improved significantly from fifth to second place over the last six months, while Openserve, recovering from a slump six months ago, moved into third place.

Metrofibre and Link Africa, which were ranked in first and second place respectively in the February 2024 survey, fell to fourth and fifth, with slight dips in their average ratings.

Frogfoot remains steady as the sixth fibre network operator, while Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel have switched places, ranking seventh and eight respectively.

“Octotel’s reliability and software systems are consistently highly rated by ISPs, as are Openserve’s reliability and network value,” the survey indicates, further noting that Metrofibre’s staff and business processes are viewed as strengths and that the perception of Liquid’s technical capability has improved from an already solid rating.

In addition, Link Africa’s commitment to an open-access model continues to make it an attractive option for ISPs, while Dark Fibre Africa, which also scores consistently highly on open access, is “let down” by its support.

The latest survey also highlights several smaller FNOs, which do not yet have the same uptake as the bigger players and did not have as many ratings as them, but were scored highly by ISPs. The more notable such smaller FNOs are Comtel and FibreGeeks, which received higher ratings than all of the top eight FNOs.

“ISPA aims to be inclusive when listing potential networks to rate. If at least one ISP wants to rate a network, we will include it. Only having a smaller number of ratings for many of the 38 networks listed makes the ratings for those operators less representative,” the survey explains. However, ISPA, which published the full results for transparency, typically only compares the eight FNOs with the most ratings.

Also commended in the survey were Purple Forest, Lightspeed, Evotel, Seacom Fibre, Link Layer, Clear Access and Mitsol, which all rated more positively than their larger competitors.

ISPs seeking to extend their service footprint should consider partnering with some of these upcoming networks.

“FNOs must streamline the support they provide to ISPs. In particular, there must be processes and adequate staff capacity to resolve the common issues that ultimately impact end-user customer service,” Booth-Beharilal concludes.

ISPA continues to engage with its members and FNOs to ensure that all players work together to deliver high quality, cost-effective fibre-based Internet.