What Metrofibre Networx does

Metrofibre Networx is a South African open access fibre network operator founded in 2010 and headquartered in Centurion (with an operational base in Midrand). The company owns and operates a Carrier Ethernet 3.0 (CE 3.0) compliant open access fibre network — the first MEF 3.0 compliant network in South Africa (2019, reaffirmed under Mplify in 2026) — built on GPON technology and spanning Gauteng, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, and Western Cape, with 500,000+ homes passed as of 2024 and approximately 150,000 residential and 5,000+ business fibre customers. Its portfolio spans core connectivity (FTTH, Business Fibre, Dedicated Internet Access, MetroLine/MetroLAN/MetroTree Layer 2 services, IP Transit, Data Centre Express) and value-added services (MetroCloud Exchange with Azure/AWS/Google, MetroSecure Check Point-based security, Business Voice / MetroSwitch hosted PBX, MetroVoice and MetroFone VoIP, BizMesh Wi-Fi, BizFone, MetroUp UPS rental, and the FibrEd Schools Fibre programme). The business monetises primarily through recurring monthly subscriptions — uncapped and unshaped residential packages at monthly price points, quote-based business and enterprise services with Bronze/Silver/Gold SLAs (95% uptime, 4-15 hour MTTR), and wholesale access fees from 60+ approved ISPs and resellers including Afrihost, Mweb, Vodacom, Telkom, Axxess, Cool Ideas, Supersonic, RSAWeb, and WebAfrica. Distribution combines self-serve online ordering, an 8-location Experience Store retail footprint, a dedicated enterprise sales team, and zero-capex fibre installation partnerships with property developers and body corporates. The company is privately held, backed by African Rainbow Capital (parent and first B-BBEE investor, 2016), Sanlam (2013 anchor), STOA Infra & Energy (2019), and AIIM and SAHIF (2021, 25.8% capital opening), with a ~$295.8M Standard Bank facility closed in July 2022 supporting ongoing infrastructure buildout.

Name

Metrofibre Networx

Legal name

Metro Fibre Networx Proprietary Limited

Website

https://metrofibre.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Metrofibre Networx is a South African open access fibre network operator serving residential, SMME, enterprise, and ISP customers across five provinces with MEF Carrier Ethernet 3.0 compliant infrastructure, bundled voice, cloud exchange, and managed connectivity services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Telecommunications Infrastructure

NAICS

Wired Telecommunications Carriers (517111), Wired and Wireless Telecommunications (except Satellite) (5171)

SIC

Telephone Communications (No Radiotelephone) (4813), Communications Services, Nec (4899)

akta.pro primary industry

Neutral-Host Fiber & Shared Access Network Operators (HDAIACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP/FTTH) Broadband Providers (HDAIABAC), Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Operators (HDAIACAB), Network Interconnection & Data Center Meet-Me Services (MMRs, carrier hotels, interconnect fabrics) (HDAIAEAK), Multi-Dwelling Unit (MDU) / In-Building Fiber Operators (HDAIACAH)

Keywords

• Open access fibre
• FTTH connectivity
• Carrier ethernet services
• Business fibre internet
• VoIP telephony

Headquarters

HQ city

Midrand

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Fibre Internet Subscriptions: Monthly subscription fees for uncapped and unshaped fibre internet connectivity for residential, SMME, and business customers. All fibre packages are bundled including price for both uncapped data and line rental.
2. Voice Services (VoIP): VoIP voice services including MetroVoice for residential and Business Voice for enterprises. Revenue from line rentals (starting at R30/month) and per-minute call charges (R0.49/min for local calls).
3. Equipment Rental (MetroUp): Rental of UPS backup power units (R59.99/month) to ensure continuous internet connectivity during power outages, with once-off activation fee of R250.
4. ISP Reseller Access Fees: Open access network model where ISPs pay for access to MetroFibre's fibre infrastructure to serve their own customers.
5. Business Enterprise Services: Dedicated internet access, IP transit, Layer 2 services, data centre express, and cloud exchange services for enterprise customers with premium SLA options.
6. Schools Fibre Programme: Free fibre connectivity for eligible schools for first 24 months, then 50% discount. Revenue stream activates after promotional period.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Metrofibre Networx operates South Africa's first MEF Carrier Ethernet 3.0 compliant open access fibre network, delivering uncapped, unshaped and symmetrical fibre broadband to residential, SMME and enterprise customers. Its portfolio spans FTTH packages, dedicated business internet, Layer 2 services (MetroLine/MetroLAN/MetroTree), IP Transit, Data Centre Express, MetroCloud Exchange connectivity to Azure/AWS/Google, VoIP voice services (MetroVoice, Business Voice, MetroFone, BizFone), MetroSecure cybersecurity and BizMesh Wi-Fi, distributed through direct online sales, ISP/reseller partners, eight Experience Stores and property developer partnerships.

Product overview

MetroFibre Networx is a South African carrier class Ethernet (CE 3.0) infrastructure company founded in 2010, operating an open-access fibre network that provides highly managed fibre optic broadband connectivity to residential, business, and SMME customers. The company offers a portfolio of interconnected products spanning three main segments: residential services (FTTH, MetroVoice VoIP landline, MetroUp backup power UPS, MetroFone mobile app, and MetroConnect prepaid), business/enterprise services (Business Fibre / Dedicated Internet Access, Layer 2 Services including MetroLine/MetroLAN/MetroTree, IP Transit, Business Voice hosted PABX, Data Centre Express, MetroSecure cybersecurity, and MetroCloud Exchange for cloud connectivity), and SMME services (BizFibre, MetroSwitch cloud PBX, BizMesh Wi-Fi, and BizFone). An open-access model allows multiple approved ISPs to sell services over MetroFibre's infrastructure. The company also operates the FibrEd Schools Fibre initiative providing subsidized connectivity to educational institutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MetroVoice: VoIP landline service offering affordable high-quality phone calls with packages starting at R30/month.
• MetroFone
• MetroUp
• BizFibre
• BizMesh
• BizFone
• MetroSwitch
• MetroSecure
• MetroCloud Exchange
• Data Centre Express
• MetroX
• MetroConnect
• MetroFibre Go

Products and services

• MetroFibre FTTH (Fibre to the Home) Open access residential fibre internet service providing uncapped and unshaped broadband connectivity with symmetrical upload and download speeds to homes and residential complexes across South Africa.
• MetroVoice Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) landline service for residential customers offering affordable call rates from R0.49 per minute, bundled minute packages (Accord, Arise, Talus) and number portability.
• MetroUp UPS Backup Power Rental of uninterruptible power supply units (B600 Mini and NETOGY UPS100 Plus) that keep ONT and router equipment powered during load shedding, billed at R59.99/month with a R250 activation fee.
• MetroFone Mobile App Mobile VoIP softphone application (iOS and Android) enabling users to make and receive calls over Wi-Fi or mobile data at discounted rates, with free app-to-app calling and messaging.
• MetroConnect Pay-as-you-go time-based prepaid fibre internet service allowing customers to top up with time-based internet access; not eligible for the Refer-and-Earn Programme.
• MetroFibre Business Fibre (Business Internet Access and Dedicated Internet Access) Carrier-class fibre connectivity for businesses including contended Business Internet Access and uncontended 1:1 Dedicated Internet Access, in speeds from 10Mbps to 10Gbps with symmetrical speeds, static IPs and Juniper SRX 300 CPE.
• MetroLine, MetroLAN and MetroTree Layer 2 Services MEF-compliant Layer 2 carrier Ethernet services based on E-Line, E-LAN and E-Tree standards. MetroLine provides point-to-point connectivity, MetroLAN enables full mesh across multiple sites, and MetroTree delivers hub-and-spoke topology, with bandwidth options from 10Mbps to 10Gbps.
• IP Transit Carrier-grade dedicated internet service offering ISPs, VoIP operators, CDN providers and WISPs high-speed granular capacity up to 10Gbps on a single interface, with 99.9% SLA, meshed subsea cable systems and terrestrial connectivity.
• Business Voice Cloud-based hosted PABX telephony system for businesses offering call recording, automatic call distribution, barge-in monitoring, audio conference bridge, call queue, auto attendant with IVR, call forwarding, voicemail and video chat.
• Data Centre Express (DCE) High resiliency, ultra-low latency carrier-grade connectivity enabling enterprises to interconnect multiple data centre sites as a single entity, with capacity from 10Mbps to 100Gbps and connectivity to major Gauteng data centres including the JSE.
• MetroSecure Enterprise digital security solution built on Check Point 1500 series appliances (1530, 1550, 1570, 1590) offering next-generation firewall, site-to-site and remote access VPN, intrusion prevention, antivirus, anti-bot, anti-spam, URL filtering and SandBlast zero-day threat emulation.
• MetroCloud Exchange Direct private fibre connectivity service linking businesses to Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud via MetroFibre's carrier Ethernet network, providing high-speed, low-latency dedicated cloud access.
• BizFibre Affordable uncapped and unshaped fibre packages for small to medium enterprises with month-to-month contracts, 1:10 GPON contention ratio, symmetrical speeds from 20Mbps to 1Gbps, free dual-band Wi-Fi router and 1 static IP.
• MetroSwitch Cloud PBX telephony solution for small to medium businesses offering hosted PBX, interconnect voice termination and various package options based on the number of extensions selected.
• BizMesh Mesh Wi-Fi solution for businesses that pairs with MetroFibre's router to deliver seamless whole-business Wi-Fi coverage, with dual-band support, band and node steering, and beamforming technology.
• BizFone Mobile VoIP softphone application for businesses (trading as MetroFone) enabling calls over Wi-Fi or mobile data with per-second billing, free app-to-app calling and packages supporting 1 to 5 users at R0.56 per minute.
• Schools Fibre (FibrEd Initiative) Corporate social investment programme offering eligible schools within MetroFibre's coverage area a free 1Gbps download / 500Mbps upload fibre package for the first 24 months, then 50% discount, with zero installation and activation fees.

Quantifiable outcome

• 95% uptime guaranteed annually
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Microsoft AzurecoreTechnology or IntegrationCloud operator partner connected through MetroCloud Exchange, providing direct private connectivity to Azure services for enterprise customers.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationCloud operator partner connected through MetroCloud Exchange, enabling direct private connectivity to AWS for enterprise customers.
• Google CloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationCloud operator partner connected through MetroCloud Exchange, providing direct private connectivity to Google Cloud services.
• Digital Council AfricaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMetroFibre is a member of the Digital Council Africa, contributing to digital infrastructure policy and development in South Africa.
• Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounding member of MEF in South Africa, demonstrating leadership in Carrier Ethernet standards and certification compliance.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Vox Telecom: South African fibre-to-the-business operator and ISP offering enterprise connectivity, voice, and cloud services — overlapping MetroFibre's enterprise, voice, and data centre products.
• Herotel: Open-access fibre and wireless ISP with a strong presence in smaller towns and rural South Africa, overlapping with MetroFibre's coverage model and ISP-reseller approach.
• Openserve (Telkom): Wholesale and retail fibre arm of Telkom SA; operates the largest fixed-line network in South Africa, providing direct FTTH and wholesale Layer 2 services to ISPs overlapping with MetroFibre.
• Vumatel: South Africa's largest open-access FTTH operator; directly competes with MetroFibre in residential fibre rollout and ISP partnerships across Gauteng and other major metros.
• Frogfoot Networks: Open-access fibre network operator owned by Vodacom; offers FTTH and backhaul services on similar ISP-reseller economics to MetroFibre.
• Dark Fibre Africa (DFA): South Africa's largest open-access dark fibre infrastructure provider, owned by Vodacom; provides wholesale fibre infrastructure serving ISPs and enterprises, directly comparable to MetroFibre's core fibre and Layer 2 offerings.

Emerging players

• BitCo: South African fibre and wireless ISP focused on business connectivity, voice, and cloud; comparable in size and enterprise target market to MetroFibre's business segment.

Broad incumbents

• Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid South Africa): Pan-African fibre carrier offering wholesale, enterprise, and cloud connectivity across multiple countries; competes with MetroFibre's enterprise and IP Transit services in the South African market.
• MTN South Africa (Fibre): Major mobile operator with growing fixed fibre and FTTH offerings; provides bundled residential and business connectivity that competes with MetroFibre across all segments.

Others

• Vodacom (Fixed Connectivity):

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/metrofibre
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCxO7kLb4xQqKNFL-9K1uMqw
• Facebookfacebook.com/MetroFibre
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/metrofibre_networx
• Instagraminstagram.com/metrofibre

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Metrofibre Networx