Delivering on its ambition of being the open-access wholesale market leader in fibre connectivity across South Africa, Openserve continued to provide reliable and innovative connectivity solutions and exceptional customer experience. The business unit achieved significant growth in its next-generation data-led products and services, which now contribute 76.4% of its total revenue, up from 69% in the previous year. This shift in its revenue mix underscores the success of Openserve’s strategy to drive the adoption of fibre-based services, unlock new revenue streams through strategic partnerships, and leverage innovation and process automation as it positions itself at the forefront of the digital transformation journey.
Key strategicScalable network
Commercialise the network
Transform service delivery
Strategic achievementsMarket-leading connectivity rate in FTTH of 48.5%
Network simplification and implementing green energy solutions
Strong growth of 21.7% in fixed‑data consumption
ChallengesAccelerated legacy voice decline
Impact of continued loadshedding
Uncertain economic conditions with increased competition in the connectivity market
Openserve’s next-generation fixed data-led products grew by 7.4% from FY2023, driven by continued growth of 16.1% in NGN broadband connectivity, while the enterprise and carrier segments grew by 4.8% and 2.5%, respectively. Openserve’s contribution to Telkom’s overall revenue increased significantly by 10.7% to R4 526 million, underpinned by the diversification of external wholesale channels. These showed strong NGN revenue growth of 12.9%, resulting in NGN connectivity constituting more than 93% of Openserve’s total external wholesale revenue.
The strong growth in next-generation services has played a pivotal role in transforming Openserve’s overall revenue mix. This growth offset its managed decline in fixed-voice revenue of R743 million or 26.5%, and the decline of R308 million or 32% in legacy data revenue predominately experienced through the Telkom channels. This resulted in an overall revenue decrease of 3.0% to R12 511 million (FY2023: R12 897 million).
As Openserve continued commercialising the next-generation network, it focused on driving cost efficiencies throughout the business unit, including optimising headcount and simplifying its network through legacy decommissioning, leading to site optimisation. It also focused on implementing green energy solutions such as solar and lithium-ion batteries, resulting in a decrease of R82 million or 15.8% in diesel spend despite higher levels of loadshedding across its national footprint.
This multi-faceted approach towards cost optimisation contributed to a strong financial performance, with EBITDA increasing to R3 934 million at an EBITDA margin of 31.4%.
In line with our strategic focus on building a future-proof network, Openserve made significant strides in expanding and enhancing its infrastructure. It invested R2 547 million in modernising its network in FY2024, with an emphasis on fibre rollout. As a result, the number of homes passed with fibre increased by 17%, reaching 1 217 110 homes. This enables us to meet the growing demand for high-speed connectivity while enabling a thriving digital ecosystem.
Openserve’s ongoing investments in upgrading its existing fibre nodes, coupled with building strategic partnerships, reinforced its position as the leading connectivity provider in South Africa. This was evident during the recent undersea cable breaks, when Openserve played a key role in automatically rerouting traffic to unaffected routes, enabling uninterrupted connectivity through its network redundancy and diversity across international internet access.
As Openserve continued to provide the infrastructure that is driving today’s innovation for tomorrow’s demands, it saw a continued increase in data consumption, reaching a high of 2 307 petabytes, a 21.7% increase from the prior year. With the continued focus on modernising its network infrastructure, Openserve is confident in its ability to ensure its network remains scalable, resilient, and prepared to meet exponential growth in data demand and high-speed connectivity in South Africa.
Openserve has made significant progress in commercialising its network by adopting a customer-centric approach and introducing innovative solutions to meet evolving market needs. Its efforts to grow its fibre footprint in high-demand areas yielded impressive results, with the number of homes connected to its fibre network increasing by 19.8% to 590 527, enabling it to lead the market with a connectivity rate of 48.5%. These achievements highlight Openserve’s ability to monetise its infrastructure investments and deliver value to its customers.
To further enhance its product and price offerings and cater to the diverse needs of its customers, Openserve launched Openserve Fibre to the Room (FTTR). Openserve FTTR offers high-speed coverage throughout the home with minimal disruption, together with Prepaid Connect, an end-to-end fibre service delivered in selected areas over Openserve’s Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) network. Free speed upgrades were also offered across Openserve’s fibre broadband portfolio, including a free 30-day uncapped internet promotional offer.
Openserve’s journey to redefine service experience and delivery is driven by its commitment to operational excellence and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. A key building block of this transformation was successfully delivered through the implementation of its integrated wholesale business support system (BSS) application. This enables automated billing and product catalogue management and fully integrated order management and client relationship capabilities. Through these advancements, Openserve has re-engineered its order-to-cash and billing processes, enhanced its client onboarding journey and automated its invoice validation while providing an omni-channel experience.
In addition, Openserve has implemented a robust network resilience strategy to further enhance service reliability and mitigate the impact of external challenges such as power outages and infrastructure vandalism. Advanced monitoring systems and predictive maintenance tools are being deployed, enabling Openserve to proactively identify and address potential issues. These efforts contributed to an industry-leading network availability, with its access, transport and core network layers consistently achieving uptimes of 99.86%, 99.85% and 100%, respectively.
In keeping with its promise of exceptional customer experience in every interaction, Openserve received positive feedback from customers through its interaction net promoter score (iNPS) of approximately 70.
Customers connected to broadband and fixed wireless broadband connectivity by 2025:
SA homes* and businesses connected through our FTTx footprint by 2025 (homes passed):
Openserve is progressively driving its open-access wholesale data connectivity to broaden access to affordable and inclusive digital connectivity, enabling a better life for all South Africans. We continue to grow our product offering and fibre footprint driven by our connect-led strategy. This continues to yield positive results in underserved areas, with its Homes Connect at 151 794 and connectivity rate at 42% in these areas.
* Achieving 1.5 million homes connected is capex dependent.
Looking ahead, Openserve remains committed to elevating its service excellence by continuously driving innovation through industry-leading technologies, process improvement and automation, thereby setting new benchmarks in service delivery and positioning itself as the leader in network infrastructure connectivity solutions.