FY2025
performance
5
Openserve delivered on its strategic imperatives, underpinned by a sustainable revenue and channel mix, and achieved a 5.9% increase in its fibre data portfolio. Fibre-based services constitute 82% of total operating revenue (FY2024: 76%).
Openserve continued to enhance its operational efficiency, delivering cost savings through energy transformation and network simplification initiatives. It embraced digital innovation to streamline operations and establish itself as a frontrunner in the digital evolution landscape.
Key strategic focus areas
Challenges
Strategic achievements
Market-leading
connectivity rate
in FTTH
Network simplification
and implementing
green energy solutions
Fibre-based
data services
revenue growth
Openserve’s strategic channel diversification is yielding results. External revenue grew by 7.7% to R4 875 million, driven by a 9.2% (R333 million) increase in fibre-based products and services. However, overall revenue declined by 1.3% year on year to R12 349 million due to ongoing declines in fixed-voice services, interconnection services and legacy data revenue of 25.4% (R732 million). This reduction was largely offset by the growth of the fibre portfolio.
Openserve’s strategic emphasis on cost optimisation enhanced its performance. EBITDA reached R4 005 million, a 1.8% increase from R3 934 million in FY2024, at an EBITDA margin of 32.4% (FY2024: 31.4%).
We made substantial progress in optimising costs through network simplification and energy transformation. Initiatives included consolidating sites to reduce power usage, decommissioning legacy network systems and installing solar power and lithium-ion batteries. A total of 1 244 sites are equipped with lithium-ion batteries and 326 with solar power, up from 800 and 50, respectively, in FY2024.
These efficiency measures, combined with minimal loadshedding, brought diesel costs down to R62 million, representing savings of R378 million.
Openserve increased the number of homes connected by 17.6% (104 103) to 694 630. This is an industry-leading connectivity rate of 50.4%. This rate reflects our efforts to drive our commercialisation strategy while leveraging infrastructure investments to meet the growing demand for high-speed connectivity.
Openserve made further improvements across the broadband product portfolio to cater for its diverse customer base. We enhanced the Openserve WebStream offering by introducing a new entry-level speed and a free installation promotion for all Openserve Web Connect Prepaid and WebStream Prepaid customers.
We also enhanced our fibre-to-the-room solution with an affordable standalone offering that extends optical fibre to each room, achieving high-speed coverage throughout the home or business.
Balancing cost efficiencies while continuing to invest in infrastructure is critical to Openserve. We invested R2 535 million in modernising our network. This expanded our fibre footprint, resulting in a 13.3% (161 820) increase in the number of homes passed with fibre to 1 378 930.
Openserve continued to leverage its partnership with Google to extend its terrestrial routes further into South Africa. Work is underway to enable a fifth international point of presence via an undersea cable that will connect South Africa to Angola, and Angola to Brazil. This new route will further diversify South Africa's connectivity. It will provide resilience in case of breakage of other undersea cables, limiting the impact on customer connectivity.
Our proactive approach to network enhancement ensures we can accommodate the exponential increase in data usage while maintaining service quality and reliability.
Openserve's data consumption increased by 26.4% to 2 915 petabytes.
Openserve is committed to exceptional service delivery. We introduced new capabilities, such as the white label ISP platform. This platform provides an affordable, all-encompassing solution, enabling smaller ISPs to offer a seamless digital customer experience, from ordering to billing and assurance.
Through the ISP platform, Openserve can enable community-based ISPs and direct strong business-to-consumer brand positioning. This positions Openserve at the centre of the fixed home connectivity ecosystem.
Openserve delivered an outstanding network performance, with uptime reaching 99.92% for the access, 99.88% for the transport, and 99.99% for the core network layers. Our customer satisfaction metrics were strong, with iNPS increasing to 72.3 (FY2024: 69.7).
Openserve is 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 in line with our connect-led strategy. This year, we connected 120 852 homes in underserved areas at a connectivity rate of 52%.
Openserve will continue to accelerate fibre-based service adoption and increase its market reach through multiple channels while expanding its network. Our ongoing efforts to reduce costs through network simplification and energy transformation will continue to drive sustainable business value.
We will leverage digital transformation and leading-edge technologies to provide the best customer experience. Together with our resilient network, this positions Openserve for continued growth as it strives to become the leader in connected homes in South Africa.
