MyBroadband Insights has released its Q1 2019 Mobile Network Quality Report, which shows that MTN has the best mobile network in South Africa.
The report is based on 345,700 speed tests which were performed by thousands of MyBroadband Android Speed Test App users across South Africa between 1 January and 31 March 2019.
The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 24.20Mbps, up from 22.18Mbps in the previous quarter.
MTN had the highest average download speed at 32.99Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 27.21Mbps, Rain on 21.62Mbps, Telkom on 21.99Mbps, and Cell C on 17.19Mbps.
MyBroadband Insights director Marius Hollenbach said the ranking of operators was the same as the previous quarter, but with a higher average performance.
Considering that there was widespread load-shedding over the quarter it pays testament to the resilience of South African mobile networks.
Hollenbach highlighted that MTN’s network investment over the past few years was significantly higher than Vodacom’s, and the rankings continue to track the capital expenditure of the operators.
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 then 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 8.33, Rain on 7.01, Telkom on 6.26, and Cell C on 5.89.
The table below provides an overview of the mobile network rankings in South Africa.
| South African Mobile Network Rankings | ||||
| Operator | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) | Latency (ms) | Network Score |
| MTN | 32.99 | 13.04 | 35 | 10.00 |
| Vodacom | 27.21 | 11.06 | 41 | 8.33 |
| Rain | 21.62 | 9.21 | 41 | 7.01 |
| Telkom | 21.99 | 4.88 | 46 | 6.26 |
| Cell C | 17.19 | 8.55 | 48 | 5.89 |
Network testing information
As part of the South African mobile network tests, data from controlled drive tests is included in the results.
The drive test project is sponsored by Huawei, which provided MyBroadband with Huawei Mate 20 smartphones.
The Huawei Mate 20 is one of the most advanced smartphones in the world – supporting LTE Cat. 21, which makes it perfect for high-end network testing.
One of the MyBroadband test benches, which was designed in partnership with Poynting specifically for the mobile network quality testing project, is shown below.
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