by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG – MTN has again been adjudged the best mobile operator in South Africa as its multimillion-Rand investment in its network pays off.
MTN, photo by Gift Ndolwane, CAJ News Africa
The operator is rated highest in the MyBroadband Insights’ 2020 Mobile Network Quality Report.
MTN had the highest average download speed at 52,84Mbps (megabits per second). This is above the average of download speed of 29,33Mbps and an average upload speed of 11,24Mbps last year.
During 2020, the average network speed of South Africa’s mobile operators increased significantly despite higher data usage.
This was made possible by temporary spectrum which was issued to Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, and Rain by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) during the lockdown.
The additional spectrum helped operators to increase their network capacity and improve their average network performance.
MTN and Vodacom also launched 5G networks during the lockdown using the temporary spectrum.
Rain, the latest entrant in the market, however was the only operator which saw its download speed decline over the last year, according to MyBroadband.
The average download speed on Rain’s network declined from 15,20Mbps in the first quarter of the year to 11,41Mbps in the fourth quarter.
This significant decline was attributed to network congestion in areas where Rain oversubscribed its service.
The report is based on 1,2 million speed tests which were performed by 41 000 MyBroadband Speed Test App users across South Africa between January 1 and December 31, 2020.
To determine the best mobile network in South Africa, a “Network Quality Score” was calculated for each network using download speed, upload speed, and latency.
The Network Quality Score out of 10 then shows how the network performed in relation to other networks.
MTN, which has been rated the best network in successive quarters of recent years, scored 9,86, followed by Vodacom on 6,17, Telkom on 4,87 as well as Cell C and Rain on 4,35.
In December, MTN South Africa announced plans to invest €1 billion (R18,279 billion) on its network ahead of the anticipated release of additional spectrum and its transition to 5G.
– CAJ News
