Internet Speed - Afrikan Heroes

Ranking of South Africa’s Fastest Mobile Networks and ISPs

April 20, 2022

A new report released recently shows that MTN has South Africa’s fastest mobile network and that the company is running rings around rival Vodacom when it comes to 5G performance.

Ookla, which owns and operates the popular speedtest.net Internet speed testing service, has published its latest Speedtest Global Index rankings for South Africa for the first quarter of 2022, which show that MTN and Vodacom continue to outperform smaller rivals Telkom and Cell C in the mobile segment, while in fixed lines, Cool Ideas is the fastest Internet service provider.

Key findings of the report are:

MTN offered by far the fastest median download speed in Q1 of 51.76Mbit/s, followed by Vodacom (36.17Mbit/s), Telkom (21.74Mbit/s) and Cell C (16.34Mbit/s).

MTN had the fastest median 5G download speed in South Africa at 213.37Mbit/s during Q1, much faster than Vodacom (132.11Mbit/s).

MTN also got the highest Consistency Score, of 88.1%, ahead of second-placed Vodacom on 87%. This score shows the percentage of speed test results that achieved a minimum 5Mbit/s download and 1Mbit/s upload speed.

Telkom’s mobile network offered the best median latency (network round-trip time) of 19 milliseconds, followed by MTN and Vodacom on 23ms each, and Cell C on 29ms.

Cool Ideas had the fastest fixed broadband median download speed (46.05Mbit/s) and the highest Consistency Score (73.2%) in this segment in South Africa during Q1.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra dominated for fastest popular device in South Africa during Q1 and achieved a median download speed of 105.21Mbit/s. Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max followed at 82.23Mbit/s.

MTN was the fastest mobile operator in South Africa in Q1 2022. Source: Speedtest Intelligence

In fixed lines, Afrihost placed second to Cool Ideas with a median download speed in Q1 of 37.79Mbit/s, followed by Webafrica (37.14Mbit/s) and Axxess (35.07Mbit/s). Webafrica and Cool Ideas tied for first place in latency, with 4ms each.

Cool Ideas was the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2022. Source: Speedtest Intelligence

The Ookla numbers are seen as particularly credible given the popularity of its speedtest.net testing platform relative to other such services in the local market.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Internet Speed: Africa’s Top Ten Countries in 2021

September 2, 2021

As Africa gears up towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the role of Internet of Things (IoT) towards achieving this aim cannot be over emphasized, thus the need for improvement in ICT infrastructure across board, to this end, internet and connectivity speed tester Ookla last month released its global market analysis, ranking all countries in terms of fastest mobile and fixed broadband internet speeds.

Countries are ranked based on their Speed Score, which incorporates a measure of each country’s total download and upload speed to rank network performance (90% of the final Speed Score is attributed to download speed and the remaining 10% to upload speed because online experiences are typically more affected by download speed).

Ookla places the most emphasis on the median speeds as those represent what most mobile internet customers will experience on a day-to-day basis.

Here at the top 10 African countries ranked by fixed broadband internet speeds:

Burkina Faso – Global Rank: 121

Avg. Download Speed: 25.45 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 9.78 Mbps

Latency: 78 ms

Burkina Faso’s top ISPs include Orange Burkina Faso, Onatel Burkina Faso and Virtual Technologies & Solutions.

Western Sahara – Global Rank: 115

Avg. Download Speed: 27.00 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 16.63 Mbps

Latency: 47 ms

Western Sahara is currently a disputed territory in the far northwest of Africa. About 20% of its territory is claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, while the remaining 80% is administered by Morocco.

The region relies mostly on Moroccan ISPs for internet access.

Morocco – Global Rank: 113

Avg. Download Speed: 27.52 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 15.04 Mbps

Latency: 35 ms

Morocco’s top ISPs are Itissalat, MediTelecom and Maroc Telecom.

Seychelles – Global Rank: 109

Avg. Download Speed: 29.52 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 28.35 Mbps

Latency: 19 ms

Seychelles’ top ISPs include Amarutu Technology Ltd, Asintelvision, and Cable and Wireless Limited.

Côte d’Iviore – Global Rank: 104

Avg. Download Speed: 32.47 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 8.77 Mbps

Latency: 43 ms

Also known as the Ivory Coast, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire’s main ISPs include MTN Cote d’Ivoire, Orange Cote d’Ivoire and GVA.

Senegal – Global Rank: 103

Avg. Download Speed: 34.65 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 10.32 Mbps

Latency: 43 ms

The Republic of Senegal’s top ISPs include Arc and Orange Senegal.

Egypt – Global Rank: 92

Avg. Download Speed: 41.45 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 7.90 Mbps

Latency: 29 ms

Egypt’s top ISPs include Telecom Egypt, Etisalat and Mobinil.

Madagascar – Global Rank: 88

Avg. Download Speed: 44.65 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 48.52 Mbps

Latency: 21 ms

The Republic of Madagascar’s top ISPs include Blueline, DTS, Netclub and Orange Madagascar.

South Africa – Global Rank: 82

Avg. Download Speed: 50.45 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 37.35 Mbps

Latency: 21 ms

The Republic of South Africa’s top ISPs include MTN, Telkom, Vodacom and Cell C.

Ghana – Global Rank: 78

Avg. Download Speed: 52.52 Mbps

Avg. Upload Speed: 35.64 Mbps

Latency: 35 ms

The Republic of Ghana’s top ISPs include Vodafone Ghana, Airtel Ghana and SCANCOM Ghana.