Bravo, Vodacom and MTN

Using an unlimited data and voice package in England and Scotland made us appreciate the excellent mobile networks in South Africa.

South Africans regularly complain about the high cost of mobile data and calls, highlighting that it is much cheaper in other countries.

Although this is no longer the case, the narrative remains, and even South Africa’s new communications minister, Solly Malatsi, has jumped on this bandwagon.

In August 2024, Malatsi said that mobile data prices need to be reduced so that they are no longer a burden to South Africans.

Armchair analysts typically choose the cheapest service they can find in another country and use this as a benchmark for the cost of mobile data.

However, these benchmarks seldom consider the network’s quality when analysing mobile data prices.

People do not expect to pay the same for an iPhone 16 as an entry-level Mobicel Vibe, and the same goes for mobile networks.

Vodacom and MTN invest an average of R10 billion annually in their networks to ensure they offer a world-class service.

MyBroadband recently visited the United Kingdom to test the quality of its networks and see how it compared to Vodacom and MTN.

We used two UK networks – Three and EE. The performance was similar, and we will focus on Three for this article.

We purchased Three’s “Go Unlimited” package at the airport, which offers unlimited data, calls, and SMSes for a month for £35 (R816).

The product sounds fantastic, especially as the service includes 5G access with the payoff line “Life Needs a Big Network”.

It is easy to activate because no RICA is required. You put the SIM in your phone, restart it, and you are connected. Fantastic.

However, the cracks started to show as soon as we tried to use the service. Initially, we thought there was a problem with the SIM.

The service would not connect in many areas, and when it did, it was so slow that it reminded us of the old GPRS and EDGE days in South Africa.

We realised that the poor performance had nothing to do with the SIM. It was simply what one could expect on Three’s network.

We have become so accustomed to Vodacom and MTN’s brilliant networks that we thought it would be the same in all developed countries.

Many indoor venues had little to no coverage, so using your phone inside a shopping centre or restaurant was almost impossible.

We regularly swapped between networks trying to access the Internet, as coverage was patchy on both Three and EE.

When there was good 5G coverage — typically in more rural settings without many buildings — the network achieved speeds of around 500Mbps.

However, these high speeds were few and far between, and it was far more likely to have no Internet access than enjoy fast speeds.

When we arrived back in South Africa, we replicated the tests in the UK on Vodacom’s network for a comparative analysis.

Not a single speed test failed, and we regularly achieved speeds of 500Mbps on Vodacom’s 5G network.

This comparison showed that South Africans enjoy world-class mobile networks and that Vodacom and MTN compare well to their counterparts in the developed world.

Three UK versus Vodacom SA

The table below shows Three UK’s performance compared to Vodacom SA based on speed tests performed over two weeks.

Vodacom dominated every department, including download speed, upload speed, latency, and reliability.

However, the numbers alone do not tell the full story as it is difficult to show the frustration when you cannot connect in a mall or shopping centre.

The reality is that it is irrelevant how cheap mobile data is when you cannot connect. Quality at a higher price trumps no connectivity, which is cheap every day of the week.

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