MTN beats Vodacom and Telkom in 4G speed shootout

New research by Analytico reveals that MTN has the highest average 4G speeds in South Africa, followed by Vodacom, Telkom, Cell C, and Rain.

Analytico provides market research, network intelligence, and marketing insights to South African IT and telecommunications companies.

The latest research is based on speed test data collected through the MyBroadband speed test apps between January and September 2022.

MyBroadband’s speed test servers are hosted in Teraco’s vendor-neutral data centres, ensuring a neutral testing environment.

The data revealed that MTN has the best 4G network, with an average download speed of 57.24Mbps.

Vodacom was second with an average speed of 39.79Mbps, followed by Telkom with 23.80Mbps, Cell C with 14.49Mbps, and Rain with 11.23Mbps.

The data showed that MTN also had the best average upload at 16.11Mbps — nearly double that of the runner-up, Vodacom.

Vodacom achieved an average upload speed of 8.76Mbps, followed by Telkom with 8.04Mbps, Rain with 7.06Mbps, and Cell C with 6.93Mbps.

However, the ranking changes when looking at average latency, with Vodacom taking the top spot.

Vodacom’s average latency was 42ms, with Telkom achieving the second-best at 42.57ms.

MTN achieved an average latency of 52.82ms, followed by Cell C with 59.97ms, and Rain had the highest at 85.69ms — double that of Vodacom and Telkom.

Image: Sunshine Seeds / Shutterstock.com

Although MTN’s latency is higher than Vodacom and Telkom’s, its average download and upload speeds are significantly higher.

It is no surprise that the mobile operator has the best 4G network in the country.

MTN’s superior performance results from a R50 billion network investment over the past five years, helping it extend coverage, improve network quality, and increase speeds.

MTN’s annual results for 2021 revealed that the mobile operator spent R9.1 billion on its network in South Africa.

The operator’s aggressive investment in its network bears itself out in Analytico’s network quality data.

In recent years, Vodacom has joined the party and increased its capital expenditure in South Africa.

In 2021, the operator deployed R10 billion into its network. Its capex increased to R11 billion in 2022.

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said that a billion rand of its network investments every year were batteries to help guard against load-shedding.

Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub

Telkom is falling behind in its network investments.

In an effort to expand its coverage, Telkom has entered roaming agreements with MTN and Vodacom, and its capital expenditure last year was R7.69 billion — of which R4.5 billion went to its mobile network division.

As of February 2021, Cell C stopped investing in its network infrastructure and now relies on Vodacom and MTN for its radio network.

Cell C said the deals it has made with Vodacom and MTN, while quite different, will be used to help it achieve its goal of reducing capital expenditure to become profitable.

Its deal with Vodacom saw it migrate its contract and broadband customers to the mobile operator, providing its subscribers with the same coverage and service levels as Vodacom’s client base.

For its prepaid customers, Cell C has struck a deal with MTN to build and operate its radio access network (RAN).

Cell C CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson said their migration to this network is 62% complete, with its network in South Africa’s most populous provinces still in progress.

The Western Cape is 88% complete, KwaZulu-Natal’s migration is 57% finished, and Gauteng’s is 33% done.

Rain appears to be focusing on building its 5G offerings, with the mobile operator planning to launch mobile 5G in early 2023.

However, Rain still offers affordable fixed and mobile 4G products. It also said it would use radio frequency spectrum it acquired during industry regulator Icasa’s high-demand spectrum auction for both its 4G and 5G networks.

MTN’s 4G network is the best in SA

Analytico’s data revealed that MTN’s 4G network is the best in South Africa, despite its slightly higher average latency than Vodacom and Telkom.

It achieved the highest average download and upload speeds at 57.24Mbps and 16.11Mbps, respectively.

The runner-up — Vodacom — achieved average download speeds of 39.79Mbps, while its upload speeds were almost half that of MTN at 8.76Mbps.

Telkom achieved similar average upload speeds to Vodacom, but its download speeds were significantly lower at 23.80Mbps.

Cell C and Rain performed relatively poorly on their 4G network tests, achieving average download speeds of 14.49Mbps and 11.23Mbps, respectively.

The following table provides an overview of Analytico’s research into 4G network speeds for South Africa’s mobile operators.

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