Rethinking the fibre race: How Herotel is doing things differently

Written by Van Zyl Botha, CEO of Herotel

It may come as a surprise to those in the large metros that there is a new race taking place outside of the major cities: a sprint by several major companies to be the first to connect secondary cities and rural towns to fibre internet. This is undoubtably a development that will greatly benefit those communities that have historically been left behind by the latest technologies, but in the rush to be the first ones to build these networks many companies lose focus on what is really best for the customer, or truly understand their needs.

Herotel is one of those major players that is currently building fixed telecoms networks in rural South Africa, but we believe that we are taking a different approach to many of the companies who are setting foot outside of the metro’s for the first time. There are specifically three things that I believe sets us apart.

Firstly, we are truly local. We live, work and operate out of 53 local offices in every province in South Africa. It all goes back to our origins: Herotel was created in 2014 as a means to consolidate 33 independent internet companies that operated wireless networks in more than 500 small towns across South Africa. After merging into a single business under the Herotel brand we have now also built a fibre network that stretches across 480 000 homes and businesses across the country.

We now have over 165 000 on-network fixed broadband customers, serviced and supported by close to 1 700 employees that all live and work in the communities that we connect. Additionally, we also believe the customers receive better service if it comes from a local office, which is why we like to employ locally when we arrive in a new town. We know that service is what matters most, so we are proud of the fact that in most cases a technician is a short bakkie drive away from you, and not sitting in a call centre hundreds of kilometres away.

Secondly, we pride ourselves on cutting out the middleman by selling our internet directly to consumers. We believe that by allowing another company (called an ISP) to add their costs to the service, they are the only ones that benefit. It is the end customer who ends up paying more for the service because there is a middleman. It also impacts the service you receive because when two companies are involved, they tend to blame each other when things go wrong. We like to have a direct relationship with our customer so that if there is ever a problem we can fix it ourselves without cumbersome delays.

Finally, we do not believe that fibre internet is the only solution to providing internet to secondary cities and towns. We agree that it is the best solution in the middle of a densified city or town, but we also want to connect the local community living on the urban edge and on farms and rural communities close to town. That is why we have over 2 000 wireless internet towers close to our fibre networks that are able to connect communities. We believe in choosing the best technology for the purpose, which in many cases means a blend of fibre and wireless technologies in the same city or town.

Fibre Network Operators all seem to be focussed on being the first to build, but at Herotel we are more interested in building the best quality networks whilst deepening our long-term relationship with the communities that we are privileged to serve. By doing it the right way we can really help transform these communities and connect them to the rest of the digital world.