Afrihost

Afrihost is a South African Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing a number of services, including ADSL broadband, fibre, fixed wireless, mobile services and web hosting. A proposed merger with Cool Ideas, another ISP, has been approved by regulators.^[1]

Afrihost (PTY) Ltd

Trade name	Afrihost
Company type	Private
Industry	Telecommunication
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Johannesburg, South Africa
Area served	South Africa
Key people	Gian Visser (CEO) Brendan Armstrong Greg Payne Angus McRobert Dean Suchard Peter Meintjes (former)
Products	LTE Voice FTTH
Website	www.afrihost.com

The company was established in 2000 by CEO Gian Visser,^[2] Brendan Armstrong and Peter Meintjes, who were later joined by Greg Payne (former COO of Internet Solutions). Originally a web hosting and general IT services company, the firm joined the broadband market in 2009. The original executives have since been joined by Angus MacRobert, former CEO of Internet Solutions and joint CEO of Vox Telecom.^[3] Dean Suchard, formerly CFO of Dimension Data, joined the board as Financial Director in 2016.^[4]

Services

In 2000, Afrihost offered web hosting services.^[2][5] As of 2018, it is a broadband and telecoms service provider as well, which offers ADSL, VDSL, broadband, fiber-to-the-home, mobile voice and mobile data services.^[6][7]

In 2011, Afrihost acquired Axxess,^[8] an ISP founded in 1997 which offers FTTH (Fibre) Internet services through most service providers including OpenServe and Vumatel.^[9][10]

MTN Group's purchase and sale of stake in Afrihost

In 2014, MTN Group purchased 50.02% of Afrihost's shares for R408 million. However, in 2016, MTN Group sold its stake in Afrihost.^[11][12]

Accomplishments

In 2017, Afrihost won various industry awards for its Fibre and ADSL offerings, as well as for its customer care.^[13][14]

See also

• Internet in South Africa

References

1. Pai, Shailaja (24 August 2021). "South Africa okays Afrihost, Cool Ideas merger". Developing Telecoms. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
2. "Q&A with Afrihost CEO Gian Visser". TechCentral. 23 March 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
3. "Vox to focus on strategy". ITWeb.co.za. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
4. "MTN sells out of Afrihost". South Africa: Independent Online. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
5. "2017 MyBroadband Conference in photos". MyBroadband.com. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
6. "Uncapped ADSL and Fibre – South African ISPs' fair usage levels and throttling". Retrieved 15 February 2018.
7. "New Afrihost mobile voice prices unveiled". Retrieved 15 February 2018.
8. "Afrihost-Axxess deal concluded". MyBroadband. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
9. "Axxess upgrades speeds and cuts prices for services on Vumatel network". Telecom Paper. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
10. "Vumatel price cuts on Axxess released". MyBroadband. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
11. "MTN buys controlling stake in Afrihost - TechCentral". TechCentral. 2 June 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
12. Okunola, Folarin. "MTN: Telecom giant dumps 50% stake in Afrihost". Retrieved 15 February 2018.
13. Memeburn (15 September 2017). "These companies won big at the 2017 PriceCheck Awards - Memeburn". Memeburn. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
14. "Gear of the Year Awards - ADSL and Fibre Providers - htxt.africa". htxt.africa. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2018.

External links

• The Afrihost Story