{"id":613769,"date":"2025-10-14T14:59:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=613769"},"modified":"2025-10-28T10:28:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:28:43","slug":"mobile-network-headquarters-speed-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/613769-mobile-network-headquarters-speed-comparison.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom and MTN smash Telkom at home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MyBroadband tested the mobile data speeds at the Gauteng headquarters of South Africa\u2019s major network operators and recorded some surprising results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile operators\u2019 headquarters have traditionally been the place to test and roll out the latest network technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, the average network performance of the mobile operators at their head office should be unmatched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, MyBroadband\u2019s past tests<\/a> showed that not all mobile operators achieved the best performance at their home base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this testing, we used four identical Oppo Reno 5G smartphones running a custom version of the MyBroadband Speed Test app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We drove to each mobile operator headquarters in Gauteng and performed multiple tests with each device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband\u2019s speed test servers are hosted in Teraco\u2019s vendor-neutral data centres to ensure a neutral testing environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAPAfrica provides all network operators at its peering points a free 10Gbps connection to the MyBroadband Speed Test platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allows us to fairly compare different network operators and achieve results that represent speeds that a normal consumer would achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World of Cell C \u2014 Buccleuch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Network<\/th>Download speed (Mbps)<\/th>Upload speed (Mbps)<\/th>Latency (ms)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Cell C<\/strong><\/td>181.31<\/td>61.14<\/td>24.75<\/td><\/tr>
MTN<\/strong><\/td>156.77<\/td>39.57<\/td>23.25<\/td><\/tr>
Vodacom<\/strong><\/td>89.99<\/td>0.98<\/td>35.50<\/td><\/tr>
Telkom<\/strong><\/td>25.00<\/td>10.18<\/td>21.25<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were immediately surprised by Cell C\u2019s network performance at its own headquarters. Cell C is busy rolling out 5G, and its headquarters is a natural place to start this rollout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN is not far behind at 157Mbps, while Vodacom and Telkom struggled relative to the other two results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C no longer builds or operates its own radio access network (RAN); instead, it has wholesale agreements with MTN and Vodacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our prepaid SIM was likely connected over the virtual RAN built and maintained by MTN, explaining why MTN offered similar performance at Cell C\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One possible explanation for Cell C outperforming MTN is that it still has its own radio frequency spectrum \u2014 raw wireless network capacity \u2014 and partially roams on MTN\u2019s network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom Park \u2014 Highveld Technopark<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Network<\/th>Download speed (Mbps)<\/th>Upload speed (Mbps)<\/th>Latency (ms)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Vodacom<\/strong><\/td>282.35<\/td>41.81<\/td>33.00<\/td><\/tr>
MTN<\/strong><\/td>238.21<\/td>78.12<\/td>16.20<\/td><\/tr>
Cell C<\/strong><\/td>111.57<\/td>36.05<\/td>77.40<\/td><\/tr>
Telkom<\/strong><\/td>32.36<\/td>21.10<\/td>22.50<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Telkom gave a disappointing performance at its head office, where it was roundly beaten by the other networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN had the highest average upload speeds of 78Mbps, followed by Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom World \u2014 Midrand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Network<\/th>Download speed (Mbps)<\/th>Upload speed (Mbps)<\/th>Latency (ms)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Vodacom<\/strong><\/td>423.23<\/td>98.43<\/td>23.71<\/td><\/tr>
Cell C<\/strong><\/td>79.49<\/td>20.39<\/td>31.67<\/td><\/tr>
MTN<\/strong><\/td>70.53<\/td>18.17<\/td>27.83<\/td><\/tr>
Telkom<\/strong><\/td>46.18<\/td>26.11<\/td>21.00<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom completely outclassed the other networks at its Vodacom World headquarters in Midrand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It performed download tests at an average speed of 423Mbps, compared to 79Mbps and 71Mbps from Cell C and MTN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also posted upload speeds of nearly 100Mbps, while the other networks averaged around 20Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN HQ \u2014 Roodepoort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Network<\/th>Download speed (Mbps)<\/th>Upload speed (Mbps)<\/th>Latency (ms)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
MTN<\/strong><\/td>139.94<\/td>42.65<\/td>24.50<\/td><\/tr>
Cell C<\/strong><\/td>95.18<\/td>39.88<\/td>23.00<\/td><\/tr>
Vodacom<\/strong><\/td>12.91<\/td>3.41<\/td>36.67<\/td><\/tr>
Telkom<\/strong><\/td>12.72<\/td>7.31<\/td>23.00<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MTN was the clear winner at its headquarters in Roodepoort. It achieved an average download speed of 140Mbps with upload speeds around 43Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MyBroadband tested mobile network speeds at each of the networks’ headquarters in Gauteng.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341074,"featured_media":599110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,42,109,41],"class_list":["post-613769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-mtn","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613769"}],"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\/341074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613769"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615799,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613769\/revisions\/615799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}