LTE and 5G speeds compared for Vodacom and MTN

Drive tests by MyBroadband Insights in Gauteng revealed that while 5G offers excellent speeds, LTE also provides great performance.

MyBroadband Insights performed drive tests in Pretoria and Johannesburg to test Vodacom and MTN’s 5G coverage and performance.

We used four test benches with high-end 5G smartphones for these drive tests.

The phones used were — Samsung Galaxy S22 5G, Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, Oppo Reno 5 5G, and Huawei P40 Lite 5G.

Each phone ran a custom version of the MyBroadband Speedtest app. The app tested the download speed, upload speed, latency, and connection type in one-minute intervals.

These test benches create identical environments for all the devices on mobile networks and, therefore, provide valuable data for comparisons between networks and devices.

What we found was that LTE speeds were impressive.

Mobile operators typically deploy 5G in areas where they want the best performance.

It gives 5G an inherent advantage in speed comparisons, as the 4G tests are all done in areas with lower network investments.

36% of the Vodacom tests and 54% of the MTN tests were done with 5G.

The average download speed on Vodacom 5G was 144 Mbps, and MTN averaged 246 Mbps.

The average LTE speed on Vodacom was 73 Mbps and 137 Mbps on MTN.

It is clear that 5G offers significantly higher speeds than 4G/LTE, which future-proofs Vodacom and MTN’s networks.

However, it does not mean that users without 5G capable phones have to deal with sluggish speeds.

In fact, users with LTE capable devices should enjoy high enough speeds for all mobile applications.

While 5G is important as a fixed broadband alternative to compete with fibre, you don’t need 5G speeds for your phone.

4G versus 5G speeds

The table below provides an overview of the 4G and 5G speeds on Vodacom and MTN.

Now read: Suburbs in South Africa with the most iPhone users