Mobile networks in South Africa ranked from best to worst

Mobile networks in South Africa ranked from best to worst

South African networks are in a constant battle to prove who has the best connectivity, access and best prices. MTN and Vodacom are constantly fighting for the top spot, while others like Cell C and Rain have failed in recent months. MyBroadband Insights tested all the major mobile networks to see which worked best. Based on 334,257 speed tests that were taken by thousands of users of the MyBroadband Speed ​​Test app in South Africa, the Q3,020 report finds that networks are holding their own. Overall, the average network speed in the country has improved despite an increase in traffic, as a temporary increase in spectrum that was issued to mobile operators during the lockdown helped them close this gap. This temporary spectrum has helped mobile networks increase their network capacity and improve their average speeds during lockdown. The only network that didn't understand this was Rain.

The best and worst download speeds

MTN has established itself as the best mobile network in South Africa with an average mobile download speed of 55,11 Mbps. Vodacom came in second at 29,80 Mbps, Telkom at 23,60 Mbps, Cell C at 17,82 Mbps and finally Rain at 10,02 Mbps.

Better overall

To examine the entire network, the report took into account a "network quality score" calculated using download speed, upload speed, and latency. This is represented by a number out of 10 with higher numbers representing a better score. Like the download speeds, the quality score is the same. MTN reigned supreme with a network quality score of 9.68, followed by Vodacom at 5.99, Telkom at 5.16, Cell C at 4.27 and Rain at 3.74.