Vumatel-owned Herotel became South Africa’s largest fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet service provider (ISP) by the number of connected homes in the first quarter of 2026.

That is according to the most recent Africa Analysis FTTH Quarter Tracking report, which found Herotel had 284,850 connected FTTH homes, ahead of other major retail ISPs.

“The ranking includes connected homes across month-to-month and prepaid FTTH services, and excludes Herotel’s fixed wireless customer base, which stands at 52,094,” Herotel said.

Herotel is South Africa’s only major closed-access fibre network operator (FNO). Unlike other major FNOs such as Vumatel, Openserve, MetroFibre, and Frogfoot, it sells its products directly to customers.

That meant all homes connected to its services are also its ISP customers, whereas the aforementioned operators’ customers were split across multiple ISPs.

Herotel said the achievement reflected a shift in where South Africa’s fibre growth was coming from, with demand increasingly extending beyond traditional metro fibre suburbs.

A large proportion of Herotel’s customers live in smaller towns, peri-urban areas, and underserved communities.

Herotel CEO Van Zyl Botha said the milestone showed that demand for quality fibre was not limited to the country’s established fibre markets.

“South Africans want reliable, affordable connectivity that they can use, and that demand is visible in the communities where we build every day,” Botha said.

While its initial business was in fixed-wireless access (FWA), Herotel quietly grew to South Africa’s third-largest FNO in recent years.

Herotel said it reached 350,000 active customers across 550 towns, cities, and suburbs, with another 612,000 homes ready for connection.

It said a major part of this growth came from serving areas where conventional fibre rollout models were often harder to justify commercially.

“Herotel’s mixed use of aerial and trenched fibre deployment has helped reduce rollout complexity,” it said.

“Its prepaid fibre model has also made high-volume home Internet more accessible to households that prefer flexible spending options over long-term contracts.”

750,000 more homes in underserved areas

Herotel employees in Springs
 
Botha said that Herotel’s business was not only about passing homes with fibre, but whether it offered connectivity affordable enough for homes and businesses not to constantly manage data limits.

“South Africa’s digital divide is no longer only about whether people have some form of internet access,” said Botha.

“It is about whether that access is reliable, affordable, and useful enough to support real participation in the digital economy. That is the gap Herotel is focused on closing.”

Herotel said in some townships and underserved communities, customers were consuming more than one terabyte of data per month at an effective cost of less than 50 cents per gigabyte.

The company has already expanded into underserved areas like Jouberton, Kanana and Siyabuswa, where fibre connectivity did not previously exist.

Herotel maintained its local presence focus, including more than 90 offices nationwide, remained central to its success.

“Herotel positions its teams close to the communities it serves, supporting local rollout, installation, and customer service,” it said.

Herotel is targeting an additional 750,000 homes in underserved areas, aiming to expand its total footprint to more than 1.1 million homes and reach approximately 6 million people.

Botha said the ranking confirmed the strength of Herotel’s strategy, but also pointed to the scale of work still ahead.