Afrihost is a South African

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

(ISP), providing a number of services, including

fiber internet Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorp ...

fixed wireless Fixed wireless is the operation of wireless communication devices or systems used to connect two fixed locations (e.g., building to building or tower to building) with a radio or other wireless link, such as laser bridge. Usually, fixed wireless ...

, mobile services,

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

, and

web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...

History

The company was established in 2000 by CEO Gian Visser, Brendan Armstrong and Peter Meintjes, who were later joined by Greg Payne (the former COO of

Internet Solutions Internet Solutions (IS) is an Internet services provider for public and private sector organisations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dimension Data Group and part of NTT. Headquartered in South Africa, IS has operating offices in Moz ...

). The business was originally run from Visser's home, until it moved to offices in 2005. Originally a web hosting and general

IT services Information technology service management (ITSM) are the activities performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers. Differing from more technology-oriented IT management approach ...

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 Vox is a FTTH, LTE and satellite Internet service provider in South Africa. Vox began as @lantic Telecom and traded locally since 1996 and grew into one of the largest independent service providers in South Africa with a customer base of over ...

. In 2011, Afrihost acquired Axxess, an ISP founded in 1997, which offers

FTTH Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber opt ...

(Fibre) Internet services through most service providers, including OpenServe and Vumatel. In 2014,

MTN Group MTN Group Limited (formerly M-Cell) is a South Africa, South African multinational corporation and mobile telecommunications provider. Its head office is in Johannesburg. MTN is among the List of mobile network operators, largest mobile netwo ...

purchased 50.02% of Afrihost's shares for R408 million. However, in 2016, MTN Group sold its stake in Afrihost. The shares were sold back to Afrihost's directors for R325 million. Dean Suchard, formerly CFO of

Dimension Data Dimension Data was a company specialising in information technology services. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company maintained operations on every inhabited continent. Dimension Data focused on services including IT consulting, tec ...

, joined the board as Financial Director in 2016. In mid-2021, it was announced that Afrihost would acquire a majority stake in competing South African ISP, Cool Ideas, after the deal was unconditionally approved by the country's

Competition Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...

. This will significantly increase Afrihost's share of the local internet subscriber market. Cool Ideas will continue operating as a stand-alone brand and business, including comprising the same management team and employees. All original shareholders of Cool Ideas, including founders Andre Jooste and Paul Butschi, will retain their stakes in the company.

Services

In 2000, Afrihost offered

services. In 2018, it was a broadband and telecoms service provider as well, which offers

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

fiber-to-the-home Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for Last mile (telecommunications), last mile tel ...

, mobile voice and

mobile data Mobile broadband is the marketing term for Wireless broadband, wireless Internet access via mobile network, mobile (cell) networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a Tablet computer, tablet/smartp ...

services. As of 2025, Afrihost offers

, mobile services,

, and

, among other services, catering to the South African market.

Accomplishments

In 2017, Afrihost won various industry awards for its Fibre and ADSL offerings, as well as for its customer care. In 2025, Afrihost celebrated winning the MyBroadband ISP of the Year Award for the third consecutive year.

Criticism

In 2015 and 2016, Afrihost faced criticism of a decline in service levels, and degraded performance of its broadband products. This was due to not provisioning enough capacity to properly serve the volume of clients it had.

References

External links