Vodacom and MTN smash Telkom at home
MyBroadband tested the mobile data speeds at the Gauteng headquarters of South Africa’s major network operators and recorded some surprising results.
Mobile operators’ headquarters have traditionally been the place to test and roll out the latest network technologies.
As such, the average network performance of the mobile operators at their head office should be unmatched.
However, MyBroadband’s past tests showed that not all mobile operators achieved the best performance at their home base.
For this testing, we used four identical Oppo Reno 5G smartphones running a custom version of the MyBroadband Speed Test app.
We drove to each mobile operator headquarters in Gauteng and performed multiple tests with each device.
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.
This allows us to fairly compare different network operators and achieve results that represent speeds that a normal consumer would achieve.
World of Cell C — Buccleuch
| Network | Download speed (Mbps) | Upload speed (Mbps) | Latency (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cell C | 181.31 | 61.14 | 24.75 |
| MTN | 156.77 | 39.57 | 23.25 |
| Vodacom | 89.99 | 0.98 | 35.50 |
| Telkom | 25.00 | 10.18 | 21.25 |
We were immediately surprised by Cell C’s network performance at its own headquarters. Cell C is busy rolling out 5G, and its headquarters is a natural place to start this rollout.
It achieved average download speeds of 181Mbps and upload speeds averaging 61Mbps. This was fast enough to take the top spot at its own headquarters.
MTN is not far behind at 157Mbps, while Vodacom and Telkom struggled relative to the other two results.
Cell C no longer builds or operates its own radio access network (RAN); instead, it has wholesale agreements with MTN and Vodacom.
Our prepaid SIM was likely connected over the virtual RAN built and maintained by MTN, explaining why MTN offered similar performance at Cell C’s headquarters.
One possible explanation for Cell C outperforming MTN is that it still has its own radio frequency spectrum — raw wireless network capacity — and partially roams on MTN’s network.
Telkom Park — Highveld Technopark
| Network | Download speed (Mbps) | Upload speed (Mbps) | Latency (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vodacom | 282.35 | 41.81 | 33.00 |
| MTN | 238.21 | 78.12 | 16.20 |
| Cell C | 111.57 | 36.05 | 77.40 |
| Telkom | 32.36 | 21.10 | 22.50 |
Telkom gave a disappointing performance at its head office, where it was roundly beaten by the other networks.
Vodacom recorded the best performance here, with an average download speed of 282Mbps. MTN achieved 238Mbps, while Cell C and Telkom only reached 112Mbps and 32Mbps, respectively.
MTN had the highest average upload speeds of 78Mbps, followed by Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom.
Vodacom World — Midrand
| Network | Download speed (Mbps) | Upload speed (Mbps) | Latency (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vodacom | 423.23 | 98.43 | 23.71 |
| Cell C | 79.49 | 20.39 | 31.67 |
| MTN | 70.53 | 18.17 | 27.83 |
| Telkom | 46.18 | 26.11 | 21.00 |
Vodacom completely outclassed the other networks at its Vodacom World headquarters in Midrand.
It performed download tests at an average speed of 423Mbps, compared to 79Mbps and 71Mbps from Cell C and MTN.
It also posted upload speeds of nearly 100Mbps, while the other networks averaged around 20Mbps.
MTN HQ — Roodepoort
| Network | Download speed (Mbps) | Upload speed (Mbps) | Latency (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| MTN | 139.94 | 42.65 | 24.50 |
| Cell C | 95.18 | 39.88 | 23.00 |
| Vodacom | 12.91 | 3.41 | 36.67 |
| Telkom | 12.72 | 7.31 | 23.00 |
MTN was the clear winner at its headquarters in Roodepoort. It achieved an average download speed of 140Mbps with upload speeds around 43Mbps.
Cell C also performed well here with averages of 95Mbps and 40Mbps. Vodacom and Telkom struggled in the area with download speeds of around 13Mbps.
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