{"id":626213,"date":"2026-01-22T09:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=626213"},"modified":"2026-01-22T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:17:28","slug":"best-mobile-network-in-south-africa-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/626213-best-mobile-network-in-south-africa-revealed.html","title":{"rendered":"Best mobile network in South Africa revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MyBroadband Insights has released its 2025 Mobile Network Quality Report, which shows that MTN has the best mobile network in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings are based on 1.3 million speed tests conducted by mobile users across South Africa during 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The testing combined crowdsourced data and dedicated drive tests to provide\u00a0a\u00a0comprehensive assessment of mobile network performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the drive testing, MyBroadband Insights travelled 73,000km and tested networks in South Africa\u2019s major cities, towns, and roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing was performed using high-end smartphones with support for the latest technologies, as well as mid-range devices that reflect the experience of typical users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN dominated overall network performance and consistently outperformed its competitors across the most important metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It recorded the highest average download speed at 83.94Mbps, followed by Vodacom at 67.02Mbps, Cell C at 61.9Mbps, Telkom at 44.94Mbps, and Rain at 22.13Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN was also the top-performing network in major metros, including Tshwane, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, and Mangaung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its strong performance is attributed to continued investment in infrastructure for both LTE and 5G networks, and spectrum pooling deals<\/a> with Cell C and Liquid Intelligent Technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C retained second place overall, ahead of Vodacom, with significantly better average upload speeds to compensate for the slightly slower download speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C’s performance is closing in but not quite matching that of MTN, which hosts its virtual radio access network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom delivered the best 5G performance in the country, driven by the ongoing investment in the latest network technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best mobile network in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To determine the best mobile network in South Africa, each network was given\u00a0a\u00a0Network Quality Score\u201d based on download speed, upload speed, and latency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Network Quality Score out of 10 then shows how a network performed in relation to other networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN reigned supreme with a Network Quality Score of 9.96, followed by Cell C at 8.02, Vodacom at 7.69, Telkom at 6.06, and Rain at 4.38.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below provides an overview of the mobile network rankings in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Network Operator<\/th>Download Speed (Mbps)<\/th>Upload Speed (Mbps)<\/th>Latency (ms)<\/th>Network\u00a0Quality Score<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
MTN<\/td>83.94<\/td>27.77<\/td>30<\/td>9.96<\/td><\/tr>
Cell C<\/td>61.90<\/td>27.27<\/td>36<\/td>8.02<\/td><\/tr>
Vodacom<\/td>67.02<\/td>14.28<\/td>31<\/td>7.69<\/td><\/tr>
Telkom<\/td>44.94<\/td>12.10<\/td>30<\/td>6.06<\/td><\/tr>
Rain<\/td>22.13<\/td>11.10<\/td>29<\/td>4.38<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN has the best overall mobile data network quality in South Africa, but Vodacom dominates in 5G.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":608550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62528,14],"tags":[355,48726,42,60107,43716,109,41],"class_list":["post-626213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5g","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-mobile-network-quality","tag-mtn","tag-mybroadband-insights","tag-rain","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626213"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626215,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626213\/revisions\/626215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}