New research by Analytico revealed that Rain has the highest proportion of users who enjoy mobile data speeds above 80Mbps.<\/p>\n
Analytico<\/strong><\/a> is a research company that provides reports, network intelligence, and marketing insights to South Africa\u2019s ICT industry.<\/p>\n It analysed the data from 865,415 speed tests performed on MyBroadband\u2019s mobile apps between 1 January 2022 and 31 August 2022.<\/p>\n Test results were processed to obtain an average download speed per user on a particular network over the period.<\/p>\n The research revealed that 54% of South African mobile data users experience real-world speeds of under 20Mbps.<\/p>\n 40% of South Africans have typical speeds of between 20Mbps and 80Mbps, and 6% enjoy speeds of over 100Mbps.<\/p>\n A surprising finding was that Rain had the highest ratio (9.2%) of mobile subscribers who enjoy speeds of over 80Mbps.<\/p>\n It was unexpected because Rain does not offer 5G to its mobile subscribers. Although it has an extensive 5G network, it is currently only available as a fixed service.<\/p>\n MTN and Vodacom, in comparison, offer 5G to their mobile subscribers and were expected to have the highest proportion of users who record speeds above 80Mbps.<\/p>\n One possible reason is that Vodacom and MTN\u2019s subscribers have a higher number of low-end subscribers with 3G phones, which drags down the ratio.<\/p>\n Another related factor that could impact the average speeds is that Rain only has a 4G network, while Vodacom and MTN still operate 2G and 3G networks, reducing the average throughput per user.<\/p>\n MTN had the second-highest ratio of users with speeds above 80Mbps at 7.2%, followed by Vodacom at 6.5%, Telkom at 6%, and Cell C at 5.3%.<\/p>\n The table below provides a breakdown of the speed brackets of South Africa\u2019s five mobile operators.<\/p>\n