NexaWave Fibre Networks — Products & Services
The product portfolio across residential, business and wholesale fibre and the product rollout logic underpinning NexaWave.
Section 6 · Business Plan
Products & Services
The product portfolio across residential, business and wholesale fibre and the product rollout logic underpinning NexaWave.
NexaWave operates a single physical network monetised through five
wholesale product lines plus connection fees, each addressing a distinct
segment while sharing the same passive infrastructure.
| Product | Description | Revenue mechanics |
|---|---|---|
| NexaWave Home | Residential FTTH wholesale access for ISPs | Monthly wholesale line rental per connected home; tiered by speed |
| NexaWave Business | Enterprise fibre & SME connectivity (FTTB) | Higher-ARPU contracted lines; SLA premiums; symmetrical dedicated links |
| NexaWave Metro | Dark fibre, metro backbone & backhaul | Long-term dark-fibre leases; carrier backhaul; IRU-style contracts |
| NexaWave Reach | Affordable township FTTH platform | Lower wholesale rental at high volume; entry products from ~R99/month retail |
| NexaWave SmartCity | Municipal & IoT infrastructure | Contracted municipal connectivity; CCTV/IoT/traffic backhaul |
| Installation & activation | New connection provisioning | One-off activation fees, declining as a share of revenue with scale |
The penetration engine and ARPU dynamics
Fibre economics are a two-stage game: pass a home once (capex), then
connect and bill it monthly for decades (annuity). NexaWave’s plan lifts
penetration — connected as a percentage of passed — from 22.5%
in FY2027 to 51.8% by FY2031, above Vumatel’s current ≈42% and
approaching Openserve’s market-leading 50.4%. Blended ARPU declines from
R1,389 to R513 per month as the mix shifts toward high-volume,
lower-priced Reach connections — a deliberate trade of price for volume
and social reach. The commercial engine is therefore penetration, not
price: revenue scales because connections multiply across an
already-sunk asset base.
Penetration is the plan’s most important assumption and its greatest
risk. On an overbuilt street, a home already served by a competitor’s
fibre may never connect to NexaWave regardless of coverage — so 51.8%
blended penetration assumes NexaWave either passes homes competitors
have not, or wins the ISP-ecosystem competition on shared streets. A
10-percentage-point penetration shortfall at FY2031 (to ~42%) reduces
subscribers by ~280,000 and, at plan ARPU, cuts revenue by roughly R1.7
billion — more than the entire FY2027–FY2028 revenue base. Section 25
quantifies this.
Unit economics — the per-home investment case
Fibre value is built one home at a time. The table below reduces the
plan to its atomic unit: the economics of passing and connecting a
single home in a representative mature (metro) area versus a Reach
(township) area. This is the calculation that determines whether each
route creates or destroys value.
| Per-home metric | Metro (Home) | Township (Reach) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost to pass (capex) | R7,000 | R4,500 | Reach cheaper at high density; aerial-led |
| Cost to connect (drop + ONT) | R2,200 | R1,600 | Incurred only on activation |
| Blended monthly wholesale ARPU | R620 | R310 | Reach lower price, higher volume |
| Gross margin per connected line | ~72% | ~68% | After direct network opex |
| Steady-state penetration | 50% | 55% | Reach often higher where alternatives absent |
| Revenue per home passed (monthly) | R310 | R171 | ARPU × penetration |
| Simple payback on cost-to-pass | ~2.9 yrs | ~2.9 yrs | Cost-to-pass ÷ annual rev/home-passed × margin |
| 20-yr revenue per home passed (undiscounted) | ~R74,400 | ~R41,000 | Annuity over asset life |
The critical insight is that both segments pay back the
cost-to-pass in roughly three years at target penetration — but
only at target penetration. Because the cost-to-pass is sunk whether or
not a home connects, the payback is acutely sensitive to take-up: at
half the target penetration, payback roughly doubles and many routes
fall below the cost of capital. This is why penetration, not price, is
the value driver, and why disciplined footprint selection (passing homes
that will actually connect) is the single most important operational
decision the Company makes.
Confidential — this business plan is provided to prospective investors and lenders for evaluation purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of NexaWave Fibre Networks (Pty) Ltd.