Gautrain mobile speed shootout
Thousands of passengers use the Gautrain every day, and most of them spend the trip on their smartphones browsing websites, reading mail, and communicating.
Good cellular coverage is therefore needed for these commuters to enjoy a good online experience, which is a challenge along a route with many underground tunnels.
This raises the question: which mobile operators have the best coverage and performance along the Gautrain route?
To establish which cellular network reigns supreme, MyBroadband conducted hundreds of speed tests along the Gautrain route.
The tests were conducted using Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9 smartphones which ran a custom version of the MyBroadband Android Speed Test app.
The full route – from the Hatfield station to the Johannesburg station – were done twice to ensure accurate results.
The results
The test results showed that while the performance of all networks was good in certain areas, other areas were dead zones for most operators.
The route between Marlboro station and Johannesburg station, which is partly underground, had very little coverage from Cell C, Telkom, and Rain.
Good news is that Vodacom and MTN have very good coverage on the full Gautrain route – even inside the underground tunnels.
Vodacom had the highest average upload and download speeds, while MTN had the highest average signal strength along the full route.
The table below provides an overview of the performance of the networks along the Gautrain route.
| Gautrain Average Performance | ||||
| Operator | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) | Latency (ms) | Signal Strength |
| Vodacom | 56.38 | 15.96 | 28 | 4.32 |
| MTN | 35.50 | 12.96 | 31 | 4.49 |
| Rain | 24.41 | 11.66 | 24 | 3.10 |
| Telkom | 18.51 | 4.25 | 38 | 3.27 |
| Cell C | 13.46 | 6.54 | 27 | 3.80 |
| Gautrain Peak Speeds | ||||
| Operator | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) | ||
| Vodacom | 169.1 | 31.4 | ||
| MTN | 131.6 | 35.9 | ||
| Rain | 81.0 | 31.1 | ||
| Telkom | 56.9 | 17.9 | ||
| Cell C | 47.2 | 20.0 | ||
Now read: How to get your money back from an expired Gautrain card
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