Afrihost


Afrihost is a South African Internet Service Provider providing a number of services, including ADSL broadband, fibre, fixed wireless, mobile services and web hosting.
The company was established in 2000 by CEO Gian Visser, Brendan Armstrong and Peter Meintjes, who were later joined by Greg Payne. Originally a web hosting and general IT services company, Afrihost joined the broadband market in 2009. They have since been joined by Angus MacRobert, former CEO of Internet Solutions and joint CEO of Vox Telecom. Dean Suchard, formerly CFO of Dimension Data, joined the board as Financial Director in 2016.

Services

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

MTN Group's purchase and sale of stake in Afrihost

In 2014, MTN Group purchased 50.02% Afrihost's shares for R408 million. However, in 2016, MTN Group sold its stake in Afrihost.

Accomplishments

In 2017, Afrihost won various industry awards for its Fibre and ADSL offerings, as well as for its customer care.

Customer service

Afrihost has received complaints regarding service delivery. Complaints range from lack of service delivery, incorrect billing from customers to poor-performing offerings, especially in 2013. In 2015, Afrihost experienced wide-scale ADSL issues, which resulted in many complaints. In 2017, Afrihost launched 24-hour support for its customers.

Network issues

In 2012, the company made the decision to move their broadband ADSL services from Internet Solutions to MTN Group. After months of negotiation, the deal was finalised in July/August 2012, and their entire client base was transferred to the new network on 16 October 2012.
In 2015, Afrihost experienced a major network outage and received a suspended fine of R50,000 in October 2015 from the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa for a complaint relating to the company's ability to provide advertised services. This decision was appealed in June 2016 and Afrihost was fined R30,000 in addition to the suspended R50,000 fine for using "exaggeration, innuendo or ambiguity" in its advertisements.
In response, Afrihost launched a pilot project with a limited pool of users to develop their own independent national broadband network, in partnership with Echo SP and Three6Five. Their entire customer-base was migrated to the new network in October 2015.