Ina Opperman

By Ina Opperman

Business Journalist


Vumatel denies scrapping packages to charge more

Vumatel came under fire for scrapping some of its fibre packages because it seemed that it was doing so to make people choose more expensive ones.


Vumatel has denied that it scrapped some of its packages to make customers choose more expensive options.

The fibre network operator said it was done simply because people wanted greater upload speeds for working from home and the packages designed mostly for streaming were therefore not in demand.

Only two packages were scrapped.

“We noticed with so many people working from home during lockdown, they did not only want to use fibre for streaming anymore.

“They needed larger upload speeds to avoid buffering during video meetings and therefore moved to packages with a larger upload speed,” says Simon Butler, chief commercial officer (CCO) of Vumatel.

He explained that Vumatel could not really comment on what customers paid, as the prices were determined by independent service providers (ISPs), who are all charged the same standard cost by Vumatel.

“Our intention is to address our customers’ needs and we responded to a definite demand on upload speed.”

According to Butler, Vumatel did not increase its prices and is not planning to do so at this stage.

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