SA broadband latency comparison

MyBroadband launched their custom Ookla broadband speed test server a few months ago, and since launch it has notched up over 40,000 tests from South African broadband users.

MyBroadband’s speed test website ranks local broadband services (instead of networks) according to download speed and upload speed.

The latest results reveal that Telkom’s 10Mbps ADSL service and mobile broadband connections offer the highest average speed.

Download speed is however only one component of a broadband service, and users like online gamers are often more interested in latency than download speed.

MyBroadband’s speed test server measures performance to local (Johannesburg) and international (London) destinations, and the results should give some guidance to gamers about the average latency which they can expect to these destinations.

Of course results will vary between different users, as latency is also dependent on the quality of the ADSL line, as well as proximity to the internet exchange. However, the results do give us an idea of what the average speeds achieved by users around the country are with different ISPs. Results will also vary depending on which of the ISP’s broadband packages is being used, however it is impossible to isolate this data in an open testing environment.

It is interesting to see that the mobile providers, which all have extensive HSPA and HSPA+ networks, are comfortably outperforming Neotel and iBurst who are using older CDMA and iBurst radio technologies.

When it came to international speeds ADSL still outperformed wireless connections, but the margin was less.

The tests indicate that higher capacity ADSL lines deliver superior latency to 384kbps lines, which seldom manage to average lower than 100ms.  The HSPA wireless services performed surprisingly well, and while 100ms+ latency is not ideal for playing first person shooters, it presents a workable solution for those without ADSL access.

Web Africa was the best performing ISP accross the board when looking at international latency, making it a prime candidate for gamers who play MMOs to consider. A number of wireless options also performed relatively well, again showing that HSPA is a viable option for gamers.

South African broadband latency comparison – the best and the worst<< share your thoughts