The South African fibre landscape is currently dominated by noise, from the arrival of LEO satellites to infrastructure operators launching their own retail ISPs. Trevor van Zyl, CEO of Octotel, says the focus must shift from simply laying cable to solving complex, modern connectivity problems.
“The industry is entering a fundamentally different phase,” says van Zyl. “The first ten years were about building a network that didn’t exist. The next ten must be about building products, solutions, and systems that don’t exist yet.”
Finding more value in existing networks
Van Zyl believes there is still significant growth to be extracted from networks already in the ground, with Octotel seeing potential for another three to five years’ growth from its existing asset base. The opportunity, he says, will depend heavily on product development and finding new ways to make fibre more relevant to an increasingly knowledgeable customer base.
“Customers know a lot more about fibre now than they did ten years ago,” he says. “We need to start looking at how we define a fibre product and build solutions that cater for an ever-evolving customer base.”
As the way people use technology changes, so too do the demands placed on connectivity. Van Zyl points to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, from everyday generative AI tools to emerging always-on applications in homes and businesses, as one example of how customer expectations are evolving. These applications can place greater demands on speed, consistency, latency, and the ability to support multiple connected devices.
That does not simply mean adding more speed tiers. Van Zyl argues that the industry also needs to simplify and rethink its product propositions as customers become more informed about fibre and more demanding about what they expect from it.
The evolving connectivity landscape also means fibre will sit alongside technologies such as satellite, rather than competing with it. While satellite can extend connectivity to areas beyond the reach of terrestrial networks, fibre remains best-suited to the high-capacity connectivity needs of established urban markets.
Retaining customers becomes as important as acquiring them
“It’s not just about new customer acquisition anymore,” says van Zyl. “We must think about how we retain the customers we’ve already brought onto the network.”
That places greater emphasis on the relationship between FNOs and the ISPs that sell connectivity to the end customer. As the market evolves, some network operators are moving closer to the retail market themselves, but van Zyl believes there is still a strong case for doubling down on the open-access model, with FNOs focused on giving their ISP partners the tools and infrastructure they need to compete effectively. That can mean better data, stronger collaborative initiatives, and making the process of ordering and connecting a customer faster and easier.
“We need to get closer to the ISP now than ever before,” he says. “Our job is to innovate by developing products that meet emerging market requirements in terms of price and technology, to remove as much noise and friction as possible, and make sure that selling on our network is easy. The service has to be there, and it needs to work.”
The competitive advantage may be operational
The latest ISPA Fibre Network Operator Perception Survey shows what ISP partners value from their infrastructure providers.
Western Cape operator Octotel retained the highest overall score, outperforming the seven other major FNOs surveyed with a score of 7.5 for the third consecutive year. The survey assesses FNOs across areas, including reliability, support, technical proficiency, communication, business processes, software systems and adherence to open-access principles.
“The network itself is obviously fundamental, but it’s not the whole proposition,” he says. “It’s about what you do around that network. How do you support your partners? How quickly can you solve problems? How do you innovate? How do you make it easier for customers to get the product they actually need?”
That operational focus is deliberate. From the outset, Octotel chose to keep its technical operation in-house, developing internal teams to build, splice, and maintain the network, as well as handling installations and technical support internally. The company has also developed its own software and technology systems.
“Whatever touches fibre, we do ourselves. That hasn’t changed in 10 years,” van Zyl says.
The next phase
Octotel’s own experience provides a useful lens on how the industry is evolving. Van Zyl joined the business as one of its first employees in 2015, when the company started to build a different kind of regional fibre operator. A decade later, the challenge is no longer simply how to build the network, but how to keep evolving the business around it.
The next phase will be about how effectively that infrastructure can evolve to meet changing customer needs and reach those where fibre will have a significant impact on changing lives. The shift towards product development, operational performance and stronger ISP partnerships suggests the fibre market is entering a different kind of competitive race.
