For the first time, leading social media data company, DataEQ, has published a South African Internet Service Provider Sentiment Report, revealing how six of the country’s data-only ISPs compare in the eyes of consumers. Having tracked over 24 000 posts across Twitter, Facebook and other online sources between 1 May – 31 July 2022, the study saw Afrihost come out tops, followed by Cool Ideas.

Another top performer was MTN’s Supersonic, obtaining the third-highest Net Sentiment score. Despite low overall volumes compared to competitors, social media engagement around Supersonic as a relatively new entrant sparked positive interest towards fibre.

Mweb and WebAfrica neck at neck for last place

Coming in with the lowest scores, Mweb and WebAfrica both exhibited a downward trend in Net Sentiment performance throughout the reporting period. These two ISPs also had the slowest response times on Twitter, with Mweb taking over 20 hours longer than the industry average.

“For WebAfrica, turnaround time and staff competency were the main pain points in complaints (making up 57.3% and 34.9% of the provider’s complaints, respectively),” notes DataEQ MD, Melanie Malherbe, who adds that “Mweb, on the other hand, struggled with turnaround time and network quality, which made up 53.5% and 39.1% of complaints, respectively.”

Afrihost - the most loved or the least hated ISP?

All six ISPs included in the study registered net negative scores. That said, the top performers received significantly less negative sentiment than those at the bottom. The success of industry-leader Afrihost, specifically, was due more to a low proportion of negative sentiment, than a high share of positive sentiment.

“This suggests a possible social strategy to keep complaint levels low through efficient customer service, rather than enticing positive mentions through branding efforts,” comments Malherbe.