{"id":370693,"date":"2020-10-16T14:01:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T12:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=370693"},"modified":"2020-10-16T14:03:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T12:03:02","slug":"mobile-network-speed-changes-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/370693-mobile-network-speed-changes-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Mobile network speed changes in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

MyBroadband Insights\u2019 Q3 2020 Mobile Network Quality Report showed that MTN offers the fastest mobile speeds in South Africa, while Rain\u2019s speeds are the lowest.<\/p>\n

The report is based on 334,257 speed tests which were performed by thousands of MyBroadband Speed Test App users across South Africa between 1 July and 30 September 2020.<\/p>\n

MTN topped the list with average download speed at 55.11Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 29.80Mbps, Telkom on 23.60Mbps, Cell C on 17.82Mbps, and Rain on 10.02Mbps.<\/p>\n

What is interesting to note is that the average network speed of South Africa\u2019s mobile operators increased despite higher levels of network traffic during the lockdown.<\/p>\n

This was made possible by temporary spectrum, which was issued to mobile operators during the lockdown.<\/p>\n

There was one exception \u2013 Rain. The average download speed on Rain\u2019s network declined significantly during the lockdown because of congestion problems.<\/p>\n

Rain CEO Willem Roos explained their objective for its 4G network is not to provide the fastest network experience, but to provide unlimited data products at workable wireless broadband speeds.<\/p>\n

He added that Rain has increased the number of 4G towers from 2,000 in 2018 to more than 6,000 today.<\/p>\n

However, the average number of users on the network has increased at a much higher pace, which will lead to lower average speeds.<\/p>\n

How mobile network speeds changed from 2018<\/h3>\n

With the advances in mobile network technologies and smartphones, one would expect the average speed which users experience to increase over time.<\/p>\n

This is exactly what happened with MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, and Cell C, albeit with varying degrees of improvement.<\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s continued network investment is the best example of what is possible. Its average download speed increased from 27Mbps in Q1 2018 to the current level of 55Mbps.<\/p>\n

Vodacom and Telkom have also invested heavily in network upgrades, but their speed improvements are less pronounced.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for this is that the additional network capacity is consumed by additional subscribers and higher network use.<\/p>\n

This shows that mobile networks have to invest billions in their networks merely to main the current service levels of their subscribers.<\/p>\n

Rain is an anomaly in terms of network performance over the last two-and-a-half years. Its average download speed consistently declined over the period.<\/p>\n

Rain\u2019s network has been dogged by congestion as its subscriber base increased, which is behind the declining speeds.<\/p>\n

The charts below show the change in the average download speed of South Africa\u2019s five mobile operators over the last three years.<\/p>\n

\n

MTN \u2013 From 26.98Mbps in Q2 2018 to 55.11Mbps in Q3 2020 (104% increase<\/span>)<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Vodacom \u2013 From 27.83Mbps in Q2 2018 to 29.80Mbps in Q3 2020 (7% increase<\/span>)<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Telkom \u2013 From 17.60Mbps in Q2 2018 to 23.60Mbps in Q3 2020 (34% increase<\/span>)<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Cell C \u2013 From 15.93Mbps in Q2 2018 to 17.82Mbps in Q3 2020 (12% increase<\/span>)<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Rain \u2013 From 21.38Mbps in Q2 2018 to 10.02Mbps in Q3 2020 (57% decline<\/span>)<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Disappearing airtime on Vodacom and Cell C<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN has more than doubled its speed while Rain\u2019s speed has halved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":262639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,35,42,43716,109,41],"class_list":["post-370693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-rain","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370693"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371828,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370693\/revisions\/371828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}