South Africa’s mobile broadband download speed ranking slipped to 56th spot out of 137 countries globally, as at end June.
This is based on the Speedtest Global Index by US-based broadband testing diagnostics company Ookla, which identifies key internet performance data in countries across the world.
According to the index, the global average for mobile broadband download speed is 55.34Mbps, with an upload speed of 12.69Mbps.
In comparison, South Africa had an average mobile broadband download speed of 44.60Mbps and an upload speed of 11.22Mbps.
Topping the list is the United Arab Emirates, with an average mobile broadband download speed of 193.51Mbps and the fastest upload speed of 28.05Mbps.
On the other side of the coin, SA’s fixed broadband download speed showed an improvement in rankings, clinching 85th spot out of 181 countries across the globe.
South Africa’s recorded fixed broadband download speed reached 47.32Mbps, with average upload speeds of 33.51Mbps.
In terms of the global average, fixed broadband download speed was 106.61Mbps, with an upload speed of 57.67Mbps.
The index shows Monaco with the highest download speeds for fixed broadband, with an average download speed of 260.74Mbps and 150.09Mbps upload speed.
Turning to city speeds, Ookla’s internet performance report shows Johannesburg had the fastest mean fixed broadband and mobile download speeds during the second quarter (Q2) of this year.
Johannesburg showed the fastest mean mobile download speed among SA’s most populous cities at 58.06Mbps, for the period in review. On the fixed broadband side, the city recorded an average download speed of 61.85Mbps.
In terms of mean mobile broadband speeds, Joburg was followed by Pretoria (51.14Mbps), Durban (45.16Mbps), Cape Town (39.58Mbps) and Soweto (30.34Mbps).
After Joburg, the report shows Pretoria as the city with second highest mean fixed broadband speed at 51.61Mbps, followed by Soweto (50.88), Cape Town (47.38Mbps) and Durban (41.33Mbps).
In terms of fastest provider, the report reveals MTN was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in SA in Q2 of 2021, with a speed score of 60.44 on modern chipsets.
The Pan-African mobile operator was followed by Vodacom (35.38), Telkom (26.07) and Cell C (25.23).
In measuring the consistency score of each operator’s performance, Ookla found MTN had the highest in the country during the period in review, with 90.5% of results showing at least a 5Mbps minimum download speed and 1Mbps minimum upload speed.
The other operators’ consistency score was recorded as Telkom with 86.8%, Vodacom at 83.7% and 79.2% for Cell C.
In terms of fastest providers, Cool Ideas was the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers in SA during the period, with a speed score of 45.76.
The report indicates that Afrihost was second with a score of 35.79, Webafrica with 34.21, Vox Telecom scored 32.63, Axxess with 30.02, MWeb at 26.87, Rain with 24.35, Telkom with 20.04, and HeroTel scored14.76.
In terms of the consistency score, Cool Ideas also led with 65.4% during the second quarter in review.
It was followed by Webafrica (57.6%), Afrihost (57.3%), Vox Telecom (53.9%), Axxess (49.3%), MWeb (41.1%), Telkom (37.1%), Rain (34.7%), and HeroTel (32.5%).
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