Fastest mobile speed recorded in South Africa
MyBroadband Insights’ latest speed test data revealed that the highest mobile download speed achieved in South Africa was 1.2 Gbps on MTN’s 5G network.
The data was collected from MyBroadband’s Android and iOS speed test apps between 1 July 2024 and 30 September 2024.
These speed test apps allow users to test their mobile network performance and rate their mobile provider.
MyBroadband’s speed test servers are hosted in Teraco’s vendor-neutral data centres to ensure a neutral testing environment.
NAPAfrica provides all network operators at its peering points a free 10Gbps connection to the MyBroadband Speed Test platform.
MyBroadband Insights analysed all the speed tests during the third quarter and found that many tests on MTN’s 5G network exceeded the gigabit barrier.
For this report, tests from private users, as well as those done during MyBroadband’s drive tests, were considered.
The drive tests are done with normal consumer devices, and repeated tests are performed on all major networks while driving around in all the big cities and main roads in South Africa.
The highest speed recorded during the third quarter was on one of the MyBroadband drive test devices which were connected to MTN’s 5G network.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 recorded a mobile data download speed of 1,183Mbps in Table View in Cape Town.
Interestingly, this is faster than the peak speed available from most commercial fibre internet providers in South Africa.
The second highest test was recorded on Vodacom, with a speed of 1,042Mbps in Garsfontein, Pretoria. This was achieved on a private consumer’s Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Cell C seems to be testing 5G networks in Randburg. A private Huawei Mate 40 Pro recorded a 5G test with a download speed of 790Mbps.
It is noteworthy that Cell C does not offer commercial 5G services yet, which indicates that this may be private company testing.
The highest recorded test on the Telkom network was also done by one of the MyBroadband drive test devices.
A Samsung A34 recorded a download speed of 635Mbps on Telkom 5G in Claremont in Cape Town.
The fastest tests on each of the major mobile networks are listed below.
Network | Download Speed (Mbps) | Upload Speed (Mbps) | Latency (ms) | Device | Area | Test type |
MTN | 1183 | 102 | 16 | Samsung S23 | Table View | Testbench device |
Vodacom | 1042 | 105 | 20 | Samsung S21 Ultra | Garsfontein | Private |
TelkomSA | 635 | 58 | 30 | Samsung A34 5G | Claremont | Testbench device |
Cell C | 790 | 110 | 11 | Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G | Randburg | Private |