Vodacom beats MTN and Cell C
Rain and Vodacom’s websites are more responsive than those of MTN and Cell C, according to tests of webpage loading times.
MyBroadband tested the loading times of all mobile network operators in South Africa to determine which ones were the most responsive.
Consumers and businesses use these websites to view the latest smartphone and mobile service deals. If they are slow or frustrating to use, it could directly impact the operator’s sales.
If a mobile service provider’s website struggles to load, it may also prompt a user to consider offers from rival operators.
Website loading times can depend on many factors, including the site’s hosting provider, the content being delivered, such as large images or simple text and scripts that need to run for user data tracking.
MyBroadband used multiple tools to test and compare the loading times of all the prominent online news sites in South Africa.
MyBroadband used tests from Pingdom, Pagespeed Insights, Debugbear and Uptrends to test the websites of all the mobile network operators in South Africa.
Load time is a straightforward metric for comparison, where a faster overall time is always better. These times should also be an indicator of real-world experience.
While different browsers and Internet connections will impact the load time a user experiences, having a slow connection will slow down both fast and slow websites.
The aggregate scores calculated by the various test tools provide an interesting measure of overall site performance, but may not offer a direct insight into user experience.
These scores measure a variety of factors, such as loading times for different types of content, the order in which things load, scripts and cookies and the total size of the site that must be downloaded.
Most responsive mobile operator website in South Africa
Rain had the fastest loading time, as well as the best average score, during our testing, likely due to the simplicity of the website and its laser-like focus on a handful of offerings compared to other operators.
The Rain website loaded in an average of 4.6 seconds, and scored an average of 60.3%. Vodacom had the same average score, but took a bit longer to load at 7.1 seconds.
Cell C’s website recorded the poorest performance, taking an average of 14.4 seconds to load, and only getting an average score of 30.2%.
The websites of Telkom and MTN recorded a middling performance relative to the rest of the field, with average load times of 8.57 seconds and 9.19 seconds, respectively.
The table below shows the average loading speeds and scores for South African mobile network websites.
| Website | Average Load Time (s) | Average Score (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Rain | 4.63 | 60.33 |
| Vodacom | 7.12 | 60.33 |
| Telkom | 8.57 | 37.50 |
| MTN | 9.19 | 38.17 |
| Cell C | 14.44 | 30.17 |
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