5G in South Africa — MTN versus Vodacom

The latest MyBroadband Insights report revealed a rapid increase in the use of mobile 5G services in South Africa and that the average speeds are much higher than 4G.

To get an overview of 5G in South Africa, MyBroadband Insights processed 80,000 speed tests performed over a mobile connection in January and February 2022.

The results revealed that 8.38% of the MTN tests and 3.46% of the Vodacom tests were done using 5G.

The higher 5G uptake is in line with feedback from MTN and Vodacom about their 5G rollout plans and the growing number of 5G enabled devices on their networks.

The results revealed that the average 5G download speed on MTN was 229 Mbps, while Vodacom averaged 151 Mbps.

To put these speeds in perspective, a customer on one of these connections can download an 8GB Full HD movie in 5 to 8 minutes.

The fastest download speed recorded was 615 Mbps by an MTN customer. The peak speed on Vodacom’s network was 449 Mbps.

This 5G report showed that 5G is slowly gaining traction in South Africa.

The uptake of 5G is expected to accelerate as more users buy 5G enabled devices, encouraging network operators to invest more money into their 5G networks.

The table below provides an overview of the state of 5G in South Africa at the beginning of 2022.

Now read: South Africa’s R8 billion 4G and 5G spectrum auction starts tomorrow — what to expect