SA’s largest wholesale network provider Openserve has crossed the 1.5 million homes passed milestone with fibre, while maintaining its industry-leading connectivity rate at 52.4%, Telkom Group disclosed in its latest JSE trading update.
The wholesale unit’s overall revenue grew by 2.2%, driven by fibre-related data revenue, which climbed 8.7% (or R204 million).
Fibre-related revenue now accounts for 87% of Openserve’s operating revenue, underscoring the strategic shift away from copper.
“Our exceptional network reliability resulted in uptime of 99.84%, 99.92% and 100.00% across access, transport and core network, respectively,” Telkom reported.
“Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) was 79.2 for the quarter (Q3 FY2025: 76.5).”
Growth Across Segments
The broadband segment recorded growth of 6.5%, while enterprise and carrier segment revenue rose by 16.8% and 1.5%, respectively. Openserve’s external revenue surged 13.8% to R1.406 billion, reflecting growth in fibre-based products and higher revenue from scrap copper disposals during the quarter.
Homes passed increased by 12.0% to 1,501,406, while homes connected jumped 17.8% to 786,490. The EBITDA margin remained resilient at 34.4%, supported by revenue upliftment and ongoing cost optimisation.
“We continue with the optimisation of costs through network simplification and energy transformation programme,” said Telkom.
Investment Momentum
Openserve allocated R557 million to capex to expand and modernise the network, passing 47,596 homes and connecting 30,081 in the third quarter alone.
The wholesale operator’s vast, shared infrastructure – spanning 8 million premises, over 1,430 central offices, and fibre presence in all 226 South African municipalities – generates a staggering 120 million network events monthly.
Looking ahead, Openserve will maintain its focus on growing overall revenue, led by fibre data revenue, while continuing to improve performance across broadband, enterprise, and carrier segments. “Through its connect-led strategy, and while continuing to pass homes, it will continue extending fibre connectivity to homes, to sustain its industry-leading connectivity rate.”
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