South Africa’s MultiChoice Group is perhaps best known for its DStv satellite TV service that is a major force in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it has now aggressively entered the fibre internet market by bringing both DStv and internet into its own uncapped fibre products offering at heavily discounted prices.
The DStv website currently advertises two products, one that bundles the cheaper DStv Compact bouquet and another that offers the top-end Premium bouquet. Both include 25Mbit/s uncapped fibre with 10Mbit/s on the uplink as part of a deal that includes TV subscription.
A 24-month subscription is, however, a requirement for consumers wanting to sign up to these new bundled packages. DStv’s Streama box is part of the bundle. It has built-in Wi-Fi and supports 4K HDR playback and Dolby Atmos audio.
The launch of DStv’s fibre products is the first time that MultiChoice’s DStv Internet division has offered fibre internet. It has, however, offered fixed-4G/LTE services.
This offering clearly requires the support of at least one fibre network operator as MultiChoice does not own a fibre service, though MultiChoice has been tight-lipped about who it is working with – so far. However, the TechCentral website suggests that the speeds on offer match those offered by Openserve, operator Telkom’s wholesale division, which operates one of South Africa’s largest fibre-to-the-home networks.
As we pointed out in July, there is fierce competition in the lower end of the South African fibre market, though whether these deals are intended to trouble Frogfoot, MetroFibre Networx and Vumatel, among other companies targeting underserved markets in South Africa, is not clear.
