MyBroadband’s latest Speedtest statistics show that ADSL connections operating on the Internet Solutions network offer the best South African latency, at an average of 94ms. Cybersmart is last on the list, with a still respectable 139ms.
On international Speedtest results, Internet Solutions again ranked top, with an average latency of 233ms. Telkom propped up the bottom of the list with an average of 290ms.
For online gamers, a stable internet connection with consistently low latency and minimal data packet loss is important. For this reason, ADSL is usually the connection of choice for gamers, when it is available. Many games can operate well over a low bandwidth connection, but poor latency can be the downfall of an online match.
MyBroadband’s Speedtest filters thousands of results based on IP address ranges, user survey input, and other variables to ensure accurate results are achieved. Tests are made to Johannesburg and London Speedtest servers to differentiate between local and international network performance.
SA Speedtest results
The following table provides an overview of the average local latency for South African ADSL network operators, based on tests made by users to MyBroadband’s Johannesburg Speedtest server:
| South African Speedtests | Average Latency (ms) |
| Internet Solutions | 94 |
| MWEB | 105 |
| Web Africa | 118 |
| Telkom | 123 |
| Cybersmart | 139 |
International Speedtest results
The following table provides an overview of the average international latency for South African ADSL network operators, based on tests made by users to Speedtest’s London server:
| International Tests (London) | Average Latency (ms) |
| Internet Solutions | 233 |
| Web Africa | 234 |
| MWEB | 244 |
| Cybersmart | 254 |
| Telkom | 290 |
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James, if you really wanted to test the best connection for gaming, you should be using in-game stats to test: e.g. get an account from all the service providers and test in-game pings to a game like World of Warcraft. Just using Speedtest is not a valid reflection of an ISP’s performance in-game: For example, at MWEB, gaming traffic is prioritised (SpeedTest is not a game, so its traffic is prioritised below gaming for a user). There other thing is, where is your Speedtest hosted ? Whichever network it is on, users on that network will have an advantage because they won’t be crossing over peering links.