Best mobile Internet connections in SA

Looking at the latest MyBroadband Speedtest results for wireless broadband connections in South Africa reveals that MTN LTE has the fastest average download speed (29.61 Mbps) while Vodacom LTE boasts the highest average upload speed (12.02 Mbps).

Based on 25,699 Speedtests among South Africa’s wireless broadband providers, the average download speed was 18.76 Mbps.

MyBroadband’s Speedtest results are powered by Ookla’s Speedtest platform. The results have been filtered and aggregated (Joburg, Cape Town, and London test servers) to represent the best overall wireless broadband ISP performance across South Africa.

Below are the latest results:

Wireless broadband speeds – MyBroadband Speedtest results (30 days to 10 April 2014)
Rank	ISP	Service	Download Speed	Upload Speed
1	MTN	MTN LTE	29.61 Mbps	5.76 Mbps
2	Vodacom	Vodacom LTE	19.36 Mbps	12.02 Mbps
3	MTN	MTN 3G	18.19 Mbps	1.34 Mbps
4	8ta	8ta LTE	16.46 Mbps	3.28 Mbps
5	Vodacom	Vodacom 3G	9.29 Mbps	1.75 Mbps
6	8ta	8ta 3G	3.48 Mbps	1.06 Mbps
7	Cell C	Cell C LTE	2.5 Mbps	1.42 Mbps
8	Cell C	Cell C 3G	2.47 Mbps	0.9 Mbps
9	Neotel CDMA	Neotel CDMA	0.72 Mbps	0.31 Mbps
10	iBurst Wireless	iBurst Wireless	0.61 Mbps	0.21 Mbps

Mobile broadband latency

Another important measure of broadband performance is latency – the amount of time it takes for a data packet to be sent from the user, to a server, and returned to the user. This is typically measured in milliseconds (ms). For online gaming, the lower your latency, the better your experience will be.

The results below are based on 24,882 Speedtests conducted to MyBroadband’s South African Speedtest server.

Wireless broadband South African latency – MyBroadband Speedtest results (30 days to 10 April 2014)
Rank	ISP	Service	Speed
1	Vodacom	Vodacom LTE	45 ms
2	8ta	8ta LTE	62 ms
3	MTN	MTN 3G	87 ms
4	MTN	MTN LTE	89 ms
5	Vodacom	Vodacom 3G	92 ms
6	Cell C	Cell C LTE	94 ms
7	8ta	8ta 3G	117 ms
8	Cell C	Cell C 3G	177 ms
9	iBurst Wireless	iBurst Wireless	203 ms
10	Neotel CDMA	Neotel CDMA	218 ms

The results below are based on 13,189 Speedtests conducted to MyBroadband’s South African Speedtest server.

Wireless broadband international latency – MyBroadband Speedtest results (30 days to 10 April 2014)
Rank	ISP	Service	Speed
1	MTN	MTN LTE	234 ms
2	Vodacom	Vodacom LTE	238 ms
3	MTN	MTN 3G	247 ms
4	Vodacom	Vodacom 3G	282 ms
5	8ta	8ta LTE	289 ms
6	8ta	8ta 3G	294 ms
7	Cell C	Cell C 3G	295 ms
8	Neotel CDMA	Neotel CDMA	306 ms
9	iBurst Wireless	iBurst Wireless	434 ms

Note that all of the results above are filtered to ensure that these are an accurate representation of what a real-world user might experience; in other words, none of the results include tests done from core locations on the respective networks of the ISPs listed.

In South Africa, the MyBroadband Speedtest platform is powered by Ookla technology, and the platform is hosted at Teraco and NAPAfrica’s vendor neutral data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town. More info here: MyBroadband speed test: bigger and better