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Cape Town - Vodacom has distanced itself from reports that it is prepared to offer fibre to the home (FTTH).
Media reports on Thursday indicated that Vodacom was offering a FTTH rollout for R799 per month on a 20mbps line.
However, Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman told Fin24 that the partner offer was premature and that Vodacom was not currently offering FTTH.
Nevertheless, the mobile operator is intent on rolling out FTTH which has been delayed by the hold-up in Vodacom's tie-up with Neotel.
"If the Neotel deal is approved it would significantly increase the speed at which we can roll out broadband (specifically FTTx) services," Boorman told Fin24.
Slow broadband
Despite that though, broadband fibre is coming to South Africans at an increasing speed.
MWEB recently announced a FTTH offering starting at R999 per month for a 20mbps line speed capped at 100GB per month. That goes up to R2 849 on 100mbps capped at 500GB.
In 2014, Vumatel also announced so-called fibrehoods were being developed where high speed broadband would be available.
"We believe private enterprise plays an important role to develop fibre and broadband infrastructure in economically viable suburbs," Vumatel CEO Niel Schoeman told Fin24 at the time.
In the most recent study into broadband, the Institute of Race Relations found that broadband in SA was both slow and expensive.
The organisation found that average monthly costs of broadband in the country are $28 versus $3 in the UK. The latter country has broadband speeds of 24mbps compared to 4.8mbps locally.
TV streaming
But demand is acute in SA as viewing habits shift to online streaming services.
The Ericsson Consumer Lab reported that 2014 saw a marked change in consumer behaviour. More people watched streaming television than broadcast TV for the first time in the markets studied.
"Drivers for this change include the advent of 4G technology, the growth in smartphone and tablet usage, and a shift in consumer behaviour toward easy-to-use, on-demand services that offer cross-platform access to content," said the report which focused on the US, South Korea and Spain.
Reports also indicated that Vodacom would offer Netflix on its fibre broadband service, but this is mere conjecture at this point.
Streaming service Netflix has indicated global expansion plans, but has not officially listed SA as one of the countries where the service would launch.
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