MTN has the fastest internet speed among South Africa’s mobile operators, according to MyBroadband Insights Q4 2018 Mobile Network Quality Report. In Africa Madagascar does, according to UK analytics firm Cable’s Worldwide broadband speed league 2018, which is based on over 163m speed tests in 200 countries.

By MyBroadband

The report is based on 383,479 speed tests which were performed by thousands of MyBroadband Android Speed Test App users across South Africa between 1 October 2018 and 31 December 2018.

The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 22.18Mbps during the period.

MTN had the highest average download speed at 26.95Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 26.78Mbps, Rain on 21.67Mbps, Telkom on 19.83Mbps, and Cell C on 15.56Mbps.

MyBroadband Insights director Marius Hollenbach said the results were in line with expectations and closely tracked the network investments by mobile operators.

MTN has invested R43.6 billion over the last four years to expand its 3G and LTE network footprint across South Africa.

This investment helped MTN to launch 11,000 LTE sites which brought its 4G population coverage in the country up to 90%.

Hollenbach highlighted that MTN’s network investment over the past few years was significantly higher than Vodacom’s, and the results now show the impact of this investment.

Best mobile network in South Africa

To determine the best mobile network in South Africa, a “Network Quality Score” was calculated for each network using download speed, upload speed, and latency.

The Network Quality Score out of 10 shows how the network performed in relation to other networks.

MTN reigned supreme with a Network Quality Score of 10.00, followed by Vodacom on 9.68, Rain on 8.04, Telkom on 6.88, and Cell C on 6.16.

The table below provides an overview of the mobile network rankings in South Africa.