Sylwia Kechiche | September 19, 2022

MTN Performed Best Among Operator Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article explores mobile performance in select countries across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We examine how four operator groups – Airtel, Orange, MTN, and Vodacom – mobile performance compared against each other during Q2 2022 across ten countries. In our previous analysis of the state of the 5G networks South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others we analyzed mobile performance on modern chipsets during 2021 (full year) across the African continent. We concluded that these are still early days for 5G across the region as challenges remain around affordability and infrastructure. In this article we focus our analysis on these four operator groups which command the majority (62%) of the SSA subscriptions. We also compare mobile performance on modern chipsets across ten countries. Those ten countries account for 59% of the region’s connections, including:

East Africa: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda;
Southern Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Botswana;
West Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Nigeria.

Key messages:

Speedtest Intelligence® data shows that MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speeds across analyzed operators, at 65.95 Mbps in Q2 2022. However, Vodacom in Johannesburg was the fastest operator considering speeds across top cities, reaching 81.36 Mbps median download speed in Q2 2022. In South Africa, MTN outperformed Vodacom in terms of median mobile speeds during Q2 2022.
Comparing Airtel and MTN performance across the three countries they operate in, Airtel took the top spot in Nigeria, both in terms of median download and upload speed in Q2 2022, while in Uganda and Rwanda there were no winners. Such was the case in Botswana too, where there was no winner between Mascom and Orange.
In Côte d’Ivoire, MTN took the market lead versus Orange in Q2 2022, whereas in Guinea, the situation was reversed and Orange took the top spot.
Vodacom subsidiary Safaricom won the accolade in Kenya vis a vis Airtel, in Tanzania there was no clear winner as Vodacom won the download speed and Airtel the upload.
In the DRC, which is host to three of the operator groups, there was no winner overall, although Orange was the top player in terms of download speeds.
During Q2 2022, South African network performance has been affected by load shedding, which resulted in consumer reporting not having signal and access to mobile internet according to Downdetector®.

MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speed in Q2 2022

Using Speedtest Intelligence® data we compared mobile performance in Q2 2022 on modern chipsets across 21 operators. Our results show that median download speeds ranged between 2.89 Mbps (MTN Guinea) and 65.95 Mbps (MTN South Africa). Median upload speeds varied between 1.55 Mbps (MTN Guinea) and 14.84 Mbps (Airtel Uganda).

We can clearly see the impact that 5G has on overall performance as South African operators came first thanks to having 5G networks in place. MTN South Africa was well ahead of the rest of operators, despite facing challenges with load shedding, with median download speed of 65.95 Mbps, followed by Vodacom South Africa with a median download speed of 48.70 Mbps. If we take 5G out of the equation, Safaricom Kenya was the fastest operator among the analyzed operators.

Vodafone in Johannesburg stole the show

When it comes to mobile speeds in capital cities, it is not surprising that cities that have 5G networks came top of the list. As such, Johannesburg led the pack, with a median download speed of 66.54 Mbps, ahead of Cape Town at 49.22 Mbps. Vodacom got ahead of MTN in Johannesburg and was the fastest operator across 12 cities we analyzed, with a median download speed of 81.36 Mbps in Q2 2022 compared to 73.83 Mbps in Q1 2022. MTN was faster in Cape Town. Taking 5G out of the equation, Orange in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, achieved median download speeds of 39.46 Mbps.

MTN got ahead of Orange, Airtel, and Vodacom

Using Speedtest Intelligence data for Q2 2022, we compared mobile performance on modern chipsets and 4G Availability in the countries where Airtel, Orange, Vodacom, and MTN operate.

MTN outperformed Orange in Côte d’Ivoire and Vodacom in South Africa, both in terms of median download and upload speeds. While MTN had better download speed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Rwanda MTN performed better than Airtel with regards to median download speed. Orange took the top spot in Guinea, Airtel in Nigeria, and Safaricom in Kenya. In the rest of the countries, the difference in mobile performance was either not statistically significant or there was not a single operator that delivered better performance across both upstream and downstream.

We have included a more detailed analysis below.

Airtel versus MTN

Nigeria: Airtel took the top spot in terms of speed, MTN had better 4G Availability.

As of Q2 2022, MTN Nigeria commanded 38.9% of Nigeria’s mobile users, with its 74.1 million subscribers almost double that of Airtel’s 46.0 million.
Yet when it comes to mobile performance, Airtel Nigeria was ahead of MTN; in Q2 2022, Airtel Nigeria recorded a median download speed of 30.35 Mbps and a median upload speed of 10.28 Mbps, both of which topped those of MTN (26.30 Mbps download and 9.13 Mbps upload).
Those speeds are set to increase as both companies have invested heavily into network infrastructure, with a combined investment of N208.5 billion ($502 million). The investment translates into an increase in 4G Availability as well. In Q2 2022, MTN had 83.8% 4G Availability compared to Airtel’s 77.9%.

Uganda: MTN ahead in download speed, Airtel had better upload.

MTN’s 53.9% market share in Uganda translates to 16.3 million subscribers as of Q2 2022. Meanwhile, Airtel Uganda had a 45.1% market share (13.6 million).
In Q2 2022, MTN Uganda was ahead of Airtel in terms of median download speeds, while Airtel had at least a 33% better median upload speed.
In its recent annual report, Airtel announced that its 4G network was available to 90% of the population of Uganda, effectively providing coverage to the entire country. To aid its capacity, Airtel Uganda is also rolling out fiber, which helps to boost data throughput. For example, in the capital – Kampala – 79% of sites are connected through fiber. In terms of 4G Availability, MTN and Airtel came closely together at 83.1% and 80.7%, respectively.

Rwanda: MTN took the top spot for median download and 4G Availability

MTN Rwanda increased its customer base by 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) to 6.6 million as of Q2 2022, expanding its lead in customer market share by 2.7 pp to 65.6%, Airtel controlled the remainder of the market.
MTN Rwanda performed better than Airtel when it comes to median download speed: MTN had a 33% better median download speed.
MTN Rwanda also had the best 4G Availability order to further increase smartphone penetration in the market and stimulate demand for data services, in June 2022, MTN Rwanda and Bank of Kigali (BK Group) signed an agreement to introduce device financing. This program will enable customers to spread over the cost of smartphones over an extended period of time.

MTN versus Orange

Botswana: Mascom and Orange performed similarly.

Mascom (MTN) is the largest operator in Botswana, with 1.8 million subscribers in Q2 2022 and a 42.2% market share. Orange is the second largest operator, ending Q2 2022 with 1.7 million subscribers and 41.2% market share.
Comparing the operators’ performance, the difference in terms of both median download and upload speeds as well as 4G Availability was not statistically significant and there is no winner.

Côte d’Ivoire: MTN stole the show in terms of performance.

MTN had 38.9% subscriber market share in Côte d’Ivoire as of Q2 2022, which equates to 15.8 million subscribers, Orange ended Q2 2022 with 14.6 million subscribers (36.0% market share).
MTN had faster median download and upload speeds compared to that of Orange, and the gap might widen even more going forward. In December 2021, MTN Côte d’Ivoire started 5G trials at nine locations in Abidjan. This was followed by the Ivoirian government adopting a roadmap for the launch of 5G technology in February this year, with 5G networks expected to go live by 2023.

Guinea: Orange commands the Guinean market.

Market leader, Orange, which switched on its 4G network in 2019, accounted for 60% of mobile connections in Q2 2022 in Guinea, ahead of MTN (30.8%). According to telecom regulator ARPT, in Q4 2021, Orange held a 69.9% market share of mobile Internet traffic, while MTN held 26.9%.
Orange was far ahead in terms of performance during Q2 2022. Part of the reason being that Orange is currently the sole provider of 4G services in the country, with MTN awarded a 4G operating license in February 2022 but it has not launched the services yet.

Vodacom versus Airtel

Kenya: Safaricom won across all metrics.

Safaricom is the largest operator in Kenya by a mile, with 67.1% market share (equivalent to 42.7 million connections) ahead of Airtel 25.9% (16.4 million).
Safaricom also exhibited better network performance during Q2 2022, with a median download speed of 36.25 Mbps and upload of 13.83 Mbps, compared to Airtel (28.58 Mbps download speed and 8.44 Mbps upload).
Safaricom has signed a multi-year contract with satellite provider Intelsat to modernize its network and expand LTE coverage. Safricom is focusing more on 4G rather than pursuing 5G as the cost of 5G handsets is prohibitive and slowing down its 5G expansion. In a bid to increase smartphone usage on its network, Safaricom partnered with Google to allow its customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in installments. Customers pay as little as KES 20 ($0.34) per day over a nine-month period. The operator’s ultimate target is to upgrade about four million 2G and 3G phones to 4G. Safaricom had also partnered with Vivo to sell 4G phones.
Meanwhile, Safaricom’s top competitor in Kenya, Airtel Kenya, paid $5 million as part of an agreement with the regulator to acquire and operate spectrum from 2015 through 2025. The operator has a remaining balance of $10 million to settle over the next three years, with a cumulative payout of $20 million.

Tanzania: Vodacom did better on download speeds.

Tanzania’s mobile market is served by seven mobile operators, making it one of the most competitive markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Vodacom ended June 2022 with 15.6 million subscribers, which translated into a 28.8% market share, GSMA Intelligence estimates that Airtel held a 27.4% market share in Q2 2022, equivalent to 14.8 million subscriptions.
Vodacom’s median download speeds were ahead of Airtel’s – 17.08 Mbps versus 12.89 Mbps. Vodacom’s 4G Availability also topped Airtel’s at 87.1%, compared to 77.7%. To further increase its network reach, in May 2022, Vodacom Tanzania signed a deal with the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB), a national fiber optic cable network. This will allow Vodacom to increase rural connectivity after an initial investment of €5.82 million ($6.22 million) in October 2021. Furthermore, in September 2022, Vodacom launched 5G mobile service in Dar es Salaam with a target to expand to approximately 230 locations in other cities. In time, as more users migrate to 5G smartphones and tariffs this will lead to Vodacom improving its speeds further.

Orange versus Vodacom versus Airtel

Democratic Republic of Congo: Orange was the top player in terms of download speeds.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the third largest country by population across the SSA and largest by area. It hosts seven mobile operators, including three of the four groups we analyze — Vodacom, MTN, Orange, and Airtel.

In Q2 2022, Vodacom was the largest operator by number of connections with market share of 35.3% and 16.0 million connections, followed by Airtel (12.8 million) and Orange (12.2 million).
Comparing operators’ mobile performance, Orange led in terms of median download speed (29.18 Mbps), ahead of Airtel (11.15 Mbps) and Vodacom (8.00 Mbps). Operators came head to head with regards to 4G Availability.

MTN versus Vodacom

South Africa: MTN outperformed Vodacom in terms of mobile speeds.

Vodacom ended June 2022 with 45.1 million subscriptions equivalent to a 41% market share. MTN is the second largest player with 35.3 million connections, and had a net addition of almost 837,000 in the quarter. MTN noted in their results that: “The overall growth in the base was particularly encouraging given the significant ramp-up in load shedding, which impacts systems and typically constrains new customer acquisitions.”
The South African market might see a consolidation if the proposed acquisition of Telkom by MTN gets the green light. This will change the market dynamics as MTN will become the number one player by number of connections.
In terms of mobile performance, MTN had better median download and upload speeds, while Vodacom led on 4G Availability. We have commented on the state of the 5G market in South Africa in our recent article.

Mobile networks don’t exist in a vacuum

It is important to note that mobile performance is impacted by a number of factors, including underlying infrastructure such as access to fiber backhaul and reliable power supply, spectrum availability as well as end-user devices to name a few. Case in point is the fact that, despite being the regional leaders when it comes to mobile performance, South African operators faced issues related to infrastructure reliability and availability over the past three months. Operating conditions in South Africa were affected by increased incidents of rolling power outages (load shedding) and there are no signs of respite.

We have seen these outages reflected in Downdetector® data, which is the world’s most popular platform for user-reported service status information. During Q2 2022 users reported 46,810 incidents for Vodacom and 34,882 problems for MTN. There were two top issues reported: no signal and no mobile internet: lack of signal accounted for the majority (46%) of Vodacom’s reported outages, followed by inability to access mobile internet (36%). This has been reversed for MTN — majority of issues were related to mobile internet (43%), followed by no signal (40%). Noteworthy is the fact that there were reports of total blackouts: 7% for Vodacom and 5% for MTN.

Vodacom commented in its results call for the quarter ended on June 30, 2022 that they already spent ZAR 1.7 billion ($99.9 million) on batteries and generators to offset the impact of load shedding with further ZAR 500 million ($29.4 million) allocated to battery purchases. Vodacom also continues to optimize site utilization by using IoT.nxt technology to reduce the amount of energy consumption per site but also piloting wind power and solar projects. While its competitor, MTN, stated in its interim results report that it “rolled out a comprehensive network resilience plan including additional batteries, generators and enhanced security features.”

We will continue to monitor mobile networks performance across Africa, looking at how various factors affect it. If you are interested in benchmarking your performance or if you’d like to learn more about internet speeds and performance in other markets around the world visit the Speedtest Global Index™.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

About the Author

Sylwia Kechiche

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Sylwia Kechiche | September 6, 2022

South Africa Fixed Broadband Speeds Up as Fiber Takes Off

We recently examined the state of the 5G performance in South Africa, and we now turn our attention to the fixed broadband side. In July 2022, our Speedtest Global Index® ranked South Africa in 95th place, with a median download speed of 35.90 Mbps and a median upload speed of 29.56 Mbps. South Africa has come a long way in the past four years in terms of fixed network performance. In July 2019, for instance, South Africa ranked 112th with fixed median download and upload speeds of 9.95 Mbps and 5.56 Mbps, respectively.

Key messages:

Speedtest Intelligence® data shows that fixed broadband speeds in South Africa have doubled over the past three years – from 15.11 Mbps median download speed in Q1-Q2 2020 to 31.34 Mbps in Q1-Q2 2022, benefiting from increased competition and growth in Fiber to the Home subscriptions.
South Africa still has a long way to go to catch up with other BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Telecom regulator, ICASA, could consider setting a minimum broadband speed to stimulate market adoption outside of urban areas, which are currently underserved.
With only 10% of households connected to broadband, there is substantial room for growth, and operators are looking to extend fiber beyond affluent areas. Furthermore, there is a growing number of mergers and acquisitions in the market. South Africa is home to a complex fiber market with alternative ISPs competing for market share using open fiber networks deployed by Telkom’s wholesale division, Openserve, and alternative FNOs such as Vumatel.
Cool Ideas took the lead in 1H 2022 with a 48.32 Mbps median upload speed and 47.89 Mbps download speed, but its market lead could be soon challenged as many operators are already offering speeds in excess of 30 Mbps.
Gauteng, home to the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, had the best median fixed broadband download speeds of 38.47 Mbps and 27.92 Mbps upload speeds. South African capital city, Johannesburg, was the fastest of the five cities we analyzed.

South African median fixed speeds doubled in the past three years, thanks to fiber growth

Speedtest Intelligence® data shows that fixed broadband speeds in South Africa have more than doubled over the past three years — moving from 15.11 Mbps median download speed in Q1-Q2 2020 to 31.34 Mbps in Q1-Q2 2022; for upload speed, the increase has been more pronounced, improving from a median upload speed of 8.85 Mbps in Q1-Q2 2020 to 24.50 Mbps in Q1-Q2 2022. These improvements are due to increased market competition and a growing number of fiber connections. According to South African regulator Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), fixed line broadband subscriptions increased by 20.4% in 2021, while Fiber to the Home/Building (FTTH/B) subscriptions grew by 34.4%. In fact, FTTH/B subscriptions have increased 44 times over the past seven years: from 31,843 in September 2015 to 1.4 million in September 2021, steadily replacing DSL lines.

However, fixed broadband adoption is still relatively low. There are 17.4 million households in South Africa, and if we translate the overall number of broadband subscriptions into household adoption, this equates to just 10% of South African households having fixed broadband in September 2021. On one hand, this marks an improvement over 2020, when less than one-tenth (8.3%) of households had access to fixed internet at home, according to the General Household Survey. But on the other hand, there was — and is — a significant urban/rural divide. 14% of households in metropolitan areas had access to the Internet at home compared to only 0.8% of rural households according to the same survey.

To help narrow the digital divide, the South African government’s South Africa Connect (SA Connect) initiative was put in place in 2013. Phase One of Digital Development focused on prioritized provision of broadband connection services to government buildings, health facilities, schools, post offices, and police stations in eight districts, but its scope has been reduced due to Covid-19 pandemic. Now, SA Connect entered a second stage, which aims to cover 100% of the population with at least 10 Mbps and 80% of the population with 100 Mbps broadband access by 2030, which forms part of government’s commitment to bridge the digital divide, especially in rural communities, while also advancing the digital economy.

There is still room to grow for South Africa to catch up with other BRICS markets

Using Speedtest Intelligence data, we compared fixed download speeds across the BRICS countries, which include five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa during Q1-Q2 2022. China topped the rankings across the BRICS countries, posting a median download speed of nearly 160 Mbps. South Africa, meanwhile, finished last, indicating that South Africa still has room to grow in terms of fixed broadband performance and adoption.

India has already taken steps to improve fixed broadband performance by setting minimum broadband speeds. We have commented how TRAI, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, published several recommendations designed to increase fixed broadband network rollouts and adoption. The recommendations also aim to help achieve India’s targets of universal broadband provision of 50 Mbps, as well as breaking into the top-50 of the ITU’s ICT Development Index by 2022.

South Africa could also look to Chile for inspiration on how to improve its fixed broadband performance. Currently, Chile tops the ranking in terms of global fixed broadband performance, with a fixed median download speed of 213.73 Mbps. While it took time, Chile’s healthy fixed broadband performance is due to a mix of a supportive regulatory environment and robust market competition. According to Chilean regulator Subtel, 83% of fixed broadband connections comprise speeds of 100 Mbps thanks to a growing penetration of fiber to the home (FFTH).

The rise of fiber network operators

There are multiple drivers behind the growth of fiber in South Africa, ranging from Telkom retiring its legacy infrastructure, consumer demand for faster speeds, and the growing consumption of bandwidth-hungry content, from video streaming services to cloud-based enterprise applications. As such, the fixed incumbent, Telkom, is no longer the default wholesale infrastructure provider, which was the case with DSL. The increasing competition in South Africa gave birth to a very competitive and vibrant fiber wholesale market. In fact, South Africa is experiencing a fiber network operators (FNOs) boom, with over 30 FNOs deploying their own infrastructure and sharing it with other operators on an open-access basis.

It’s important to note the difference between FNOs and ISPs: an FNO manages and owns fiber optic connectivity infrastructure; an ISP handles everything customer related, such as getting customers online, support, billing, and more. ISPs often have relationships with multiple FNOs and negotiate deals with them. FNOs like Vumatel, Fibrehoods, Link Africa, Dark Fiber Africa, Openserve, Frogfoot, and Metro Fiber continue to increase their footprint. The competition between FNOs is heating up, both in terms of geographical footprint and on pricing. For instance, MetroFibre recently introduced pay-as-you-go internet options to target underserved areas, while others are doubling speeds offered at the same price.

Vumatel is the market leader in terms of homes passed — the number of premises to which an operator has the capability to connect — and active subscribers, with a self-reported 39% market share across both measures. Vumatel’s fiber network passes 1.5 million homes and has over 450,000 customers connected to its fiber network, with over 30,000 kilometers of fiber network. Vumatel acquired companies such as SADV and Fibrehoods to expand its reach. Vumatel, so far, has mostly focused on big metropolitan areas, but it is now expanding to high-density lower-income areas by offering prepaid packages. In 2017, Vumatel announced a pilot project where residents of Alexandria township could get access to 100 Mbps speeds for less than ZAR 100 (USD 5.88) per month, but the project hasn’t yet come to fruition.

With fiber leveling the competitive field, Telkom created a wholesale fixed-line division, Openserve, in 2015. Openserve’s legal separation will be completed on September 1, 2022 when it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Telkom Group. There are over 200 ISPs (Internet Service Providers) using its open access network. Openserve reported that by June 30, 2022, its fiber network passed over 890,000 homes — a 45.3% increase from 612,451 a year earlier. At the same time, the number of households connected to its fiber network increased by 35.2% to 414,847, representing an FTTH connectivity rate of 46.6%. Openserve fiber network has the largest reach, with more than 170,000 kilometers of fiber deployed. The operator invested capex to the tune of R 3,472 million (USD 204 million) to modernize and expand the network in 2021 to replace legacy copper networks with fiber. To monetize its investment, Openserve informed ISPs that it plans to stop offering ADSL services from October 2021 in areas within its fiber footprint, with the ultimate goal of shutting down copper based services by 2024.

Frogfoot acquired LinkAfrica’s Western Cape FTTH assets in September 2021 to help its presence in the Western Cape, where Frogfoot increased the number of homes passed to 312,000. Currently, the FNO’s fiber network has passed 336,000 homes, connecting 128,600 homes and 12,500 businesses. In June 2022, Frogfoot announced its Century Promotion, which enables participating ISPs to offer discounted rates on four different line speeds. As a result, end-users can obtain top-tier 1 Gbps connections for less than ZAR 1,000 (USD 58.76). Frogfoot’s ultimate goal is for consumers to subscribe to a 50 Mbps package at well below ZAR 500 (ZAR 29.38) per month.

Vodacom is also looking to increase its market presence in the fixed broadband space. In November 2021, it acquired a 30% stake in a newly combined InfaCo, which combines assets of Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) and Vodacom’s fiber assets with an option to increase the stake to 40%. The deal, which is currently undergoing regulatory approval processes, gives Vodacom access to the fiber networks of Vumatel and Dark Fiber Africa (DFA), which are both owned by CIVH. Vumatel’s fiber network will be merged with Vodacom’s FTTH and fiber-to-the-business assets.

Cool Ideas took the lead as fiber land grab heats up

Using Speedtest Intelligence®, we compared fixed broadband performance in South Africa during Q1-Q2 2022 across the country’s top providers, those that account for 3% or more of total test samples, which leaves smaller ISPs off our rankings. Our data shows that Cool Ideas led the South African fixed broadband market in the first half of 2022. Cool Ideas reached almost 50 Mbps symmetrical speeds, with 48.32 Mbps median upload speed and 47.89 Mbps download speed. Afrihost, Webafrica, Vox Telecom, Axxess, and rain achieved median download speeds in excess of 30 Mbps. Operator performance in the region can be heavily impacted by the technology offered, with pure FTTH provider Cool Ideas topping our rankings. Fixed download speeds, however, are just one part of the story. Another is coverage. Operators such as Afrihost, MWEB, Vox Telecom, and Axxess use MTN and Vodacom’s mobile networks to offer Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) to expand their coverage in areas where there is no fiber or ADSL coverage.

Cool Ideas, which only offers fiber to homes and businesses, was acquired by Afrihost, but it continues to operate as a standalone brand. The ISP is using Vumatel’s network, which has announced that it will increase speeds for its customers. Cool Ideas customers have recently been notified that their 20/10 Mbps package will be upgraded to 50/50 Mbps for free, while the 100/100 Mbps package will double to 200/200 Mbps.

Afrihost, which finished second in our rankings, offers a range of technologies including FTTH, fixed wireless, ADSL, VDSL, and mobile data. Afrihost and Cool Ideas merged in August 2021 after South Africa’s Competition Commission approved Afrihost buying a majority stake in Cool Ideas. Cool Ideas continues to operate its brand and business separately from Afrihost, with the same employees and management team it had before the merger. Afrihost also owns a majority stake in another South African ISP, Axxess.

Rain, formerly known as iBurst and Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), offers 4G and 5G mobile data to its customers. In November 2019, it became the first company in Africa to launch a 5G Standalone network. Its 5G network currently covers 6 million households in South Africa, including those in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town, and Potchefstroom in the North West province. Rain plans to expand to new areas and towns along the Garden Route and in Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

MWEB’s technology mix includes DSL, fiber, and LTE. It is a consumer arm of Dimension Data.

HeroTel operates in more than 400 towns and 107 municipalities, with over 150,000 homes passed. It has almost 130,000 broadband subscriptions, 45% of which use fiber, with the remainder using FWA services. CIVH, owner of Vumatel, acquired a 45% stake in Herotel in February 2022, and the company wants to increase its stake in Herotel to 100%. The goal is to expand the footprint of fiber to lower income communities in smaller towns and cities, where Herotel already has a network.

Vox Telecom offers DSL using Telkom’s network and provides fiber using open access fiber networks. Vox Telecom acquired Frogfoot, an FNO, in July 2015.

Gauteng province speeds ahead the country’s average

Across the nine South African provinces, Gauteng is the smallest by land mass, but it’s also the most populous and wealthiest province, home to the country’s largest city, Johannesburg. Given the population and economics of the province, It’s perhaps no surprise that Gauteng had the best median fixed broadband download and upload speeds at 38.47 Mbps and 27.92 Mbps, respectively. Gauteng’s leading speeds are due to several operators posting median download speeds faster than 40 Mbps, such as Afrihost, Axxess, Cool Ideas, Vox Telecom, and Webafrica.

Northern Cape, on the other hand, the largest but most sparsely populated province in South Africa, was home to a median download speed three times lower than the country’s average of 31.34 Mbps.

Residents of Johannesburg had the fastest broadband

Johannesburg performed well across the five cities we looked at in terms of median download and upload speeds. Download speeds in Johannesburg ranged from 25.53 Mbps to 51.49 Mbps, while in Port Elizabeth, speeds were much lower, ranging from 6.36 Mbps to 30.11 Mbps. Typically fiber networks first reach rich and affluent communities that present a fertile ground for their services. For example, a northern suburb of Johannesburg–Parkhurst–was Vumatel’s first suburb.

More is needed to improve fixed networks performance and adoption

Increasing download speeds require more investment in broadband infrastructure from ISPs and FNOs, but most importantly there is a need for reliable underlying infrastructure. Several undersea cables landed in South Africa, including WACS, EASSy, Seacom, SAT3/SAFE, and SACS, with the Equanio and 2Africa cables coming online soon, which helps increase network capacity. However, operators are also facing issues related to infrastructure reliability and availability such as loadshedding (rolling power outages). Affordability is another matter that needs to be addressed.

We will continue to monitor network performance in South Africa to see what effect the fiber race will have on fixed broadband speeds. If you’d like to learn more about internet speeds and performance in other markets around the world, visit the Speedtest Global Index™.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Isla McKetta | December 18, 2019

A Global Look at Mobile Modem Market Share and Device Performance

Analysts discuss the latest devices all the time, but rarely is enough attention paid to the phone’s real powerhouse — the modem. We were interested to see how market share for modem manufacturers divides up on a global level, so we investigated device data from Speedtest Intelligence^TM during Q3 2019. We also looked at how popular phones performed in different markets, including a look at 5G phones in 5G countries.

Global modem market share

Ookla_Global-Modem-Market-Share_1219-2

Speedtest data showed Qualcomm was the most common modem manufacturer in 133 countries during Q3 2019 — the highest market share was in Hong Kong with 73.6% of the devices analyzed showing Qualcomm modems. Qualcomm’s slimmest majority was in Botswana with 25.6% of devices analyzed showing Qualcomm modems.

This is not surprising as Qualcomm chipsets power many flagship devices sold around the world. In the U.S., virtually all Android OEMs use Qualcomm-powered chipsets. The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ mobile platform with Snapdragon X24 integrated LTE modem (up to 2Gbps) powers popular devices from Samsung, LG and OnePlus. It’s worth noting that Qualcomm has multi-year licensing deals with multiple OEMs based in China, namely Vivo, OPPO, Lenovo, Xiaomi and OnePlus, providing their complete modem-to-antenna solutions for optimal RF performance. This includes valuable RF Front End (RFFE) components such as power amplifiers, envelope trackers, RF switches, filters and antenna tuners.

These OEMs also have access to Qualcomm’s first and second generation 5G modems. As of right now, Qualcomm is also the only chipset manufacturer providing modem-to-antenna solutions for 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) deployments, providing all-in-one mmWave antenna modules that contain radio transceiver, RFFE and phased array antenna.

Intel was the most common modem manufacturer in 32 counties during Q3 2019. The highest percentage of devices with Intel modems was seen in Greenland at 55.6%. Intel’s slimmest majority was in South Africa with 28.6% of devices analyzed showing Intel modems. Intel’s main customer in the smartphone space is Apple. Starting in 2016, Apple began powering some iPhone devices with Intel’s flagship LTE chipsets, and since 2018, all iPhones have Intel’s cellular chipsets.

Samsung was the most common modem manufacturer in 16 countries during Q3 2019. South Korea had the highest percentage of devices with Samsung modems at 53.8%. Samsung’s slimmest majority was in Mozambique with 29.1% of devices analyzed powered by Samsung modems. Samsung’s Exynos LTE modem is seen in variants of Samsung’s Galaxy S and Note devices. Except in the Americas and China, most of Samsung’s flagship S10 and Note 10 devices around the world are powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 982x SoC (system on a chip), with an integrated LTE Category 20 modem capable of download speeds of up to 2 Gbps.

Speedtest data showed HiSilicon as the most common modem manufacturer in two countries during Q3 2019. In Costa Rica, 32.4% of devices analyzed showed HiSilicon modems, and in Namibia that number was 27.6%. HiSilicon is a semiconductor company based in Shenzhen and fully owned by Huawei. Huawei integrates its own flagship modem into its flagship P and Mate series devices. These devices have a large user base in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Device performance is affected by market factors

A phone’s performance is always going to depend on the conditions within its specific market. Factors affecting network performance can include: geography, cell site and population density, the amount of wireless spectrum deployed and the overall capabilities of user equipment seeded to market. Multiple factors can impact the performance of a device, including: varying degrees of RF transparency in the materials used for device chassis, variations in RF front-end and antenna design complexity and whether the baseband processor is more or less capable of handling network tasks. We used Speedtest data to analyze how three popular phones — the Apple iPhone Xs, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S10 — performed in specific markets around the world during Q3 2019. We excluded data from devices with fewer than 100 samples in a market during the period.

Mean-DL-Speeds-on-Flagship-Phones

The Samsung Galaxy S10 was the fastest of these three devices in all but five markets during Q3 2019. However, the mean download speed on the Galaxy S10 varied between 18.06 Mbps in India and 95.91 Mbps in Canada. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro showed the fastest mean download speed of these three devices in France and the U.K. during Q3 2019 and often placed second in the remaining markets on the list. Mean download speed on the Mate 20 Pro during Q3 2019 ranged from 14.57 Mbps in India to 93.66 Mbps in Canada.

Apple’s iPhone Xs was at a slight disadvantage in this comparison, as it came out in 2018 where the other devices debuted in 2019. Because the iPhone 11 was not fully seeded to markets in Q3 2019, we considered its predecessor, the iPhone Xs, in this analysis. The iPhone Xs showed the fastest mean download speed in Germany, Japan and Nigeria during Q3 2019. Mean download speeds on the iPhone Xs varied from 15.92 Mbps in India to 71.72 Mbps in Canada.

Device performance in 5G markets

5G currently offers the pinnacle of mobile performance. We looked at 5G-capable devices in markets where 5G exists to see how download speeds compare. These results include Speedtest results on all technologies, not just 5G, which means averages also reflect consumers using 5G phones with a 4G connection.

Mean-DL-Speeds-on-5G-Phones

Both the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G showed mean download speeds in excess of 200 Mbps in some markets during Q3 2019. However, there’s clearly some difference in which devices are supported by which operators, as not all operators in 5G markets are offering 5G equally (if at all). Related, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G models sold in the U.S. and China are powered by Qualcomm’s first-generation Snapdragon X50 5G modem, while other 5G markets receive the variant powered by Samsung’s in-house Exynos 5100 5G modem.

Mobile operators continue to incentivize consumers to upgrade to newer and more capable devices to ensure a more efficient use of spectrum assets for network operators. This leads to an improved utilization of shared resources, faster overall speeds and better quality of experience.

We’re looking forward to updating these analyses as more markets adopt 5G and as newer and even faster phones are released. For more information about how our device data can help you, contact us.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Sylwia Kechiche | June 21, 2022

South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others

Key Messages

4G continues to expand in Africa, and 5G is on the operators’ radar. South Africa was the first country in the region to launch 5G, and has since been joined by a handful of countries: Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Togo.
We examine 5G performance in South Africa in Q1 2022 vs. Q1 2021. In Q1 2022, MTN had the fastest median 5G download speed in South Africa at 213.37 Mbps, ahead of Vodacom (132.11 Mbps). MTN showed a strong improvement to its 5G Availability from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022, growing from 1.0% to 9.7%.
Using Speedtest Intelligence® data, we analyzed mobile performance on modern chipsets during 2021. Southern Africa is the fastest region in Africa in terms of median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps.
Johannesburg is the fastest city in sub-Saharan Africa.

Narrowing the digital divide for wider societal benefits

According to GSMA Intelligence, there were almost one billion mobile connections across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in Q1 2022. Unfortunately for those users, it’s no secret that mobile performance and coverage in Africa have been subpar. We examined the state of the North African market in June of 2021, but the time is long overdue to examine the state of networks specific to SSA.

Affordable 4G smartphones and targeted financing for under-served demographics are key for bridging the digital divide, but that’s not the only benefit: A World Bank study found that 4G coverage can help cut poverty by up to 4.3%. Additionally, the International Finance Corporation estimates a 10% boost to mobile broadband penetration in Africa could lift GDP per capita by 2.5%.

Southern Africa had the fastest median download speed across African regions

Using Speedtest Intelligence® data, we analyzed mobile performance on modern chipsets during 2021 (full year) across the African continent. Modern chipsets include all mobile tests, regardless of connection technology used, as long as they are taken on devices that are identified as being capable of achieving the fastest speeds available in a market. Ookla closely monitors the launch and widespread release of new device models built on chipsets capable of utilizing the latest mobile network technologies. We aggregated speeds across countries that fall within the five African regions as defined by the United Nations. When looking at median download speeds in 2021, Southern Africa ranked first, with a median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps.

Eastern Africa had the fastest median upload speed at 9.23 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 8.99 Mbps, Central Africa at 8.62 Mbps, Southern Africa (8.20 Mbps), and Western Africa (7.91 Mbps).

To support the growing demand for faster speeds there is a growing investment in both surface and undersea cables. For example, Google’s new subsea cable, the Equiano, landed in Togo in March 2022 and Nigeria in April 2022. The cable is set to become operational by the end of the year and is also expected to bring connectivity to areas such as Namibia, South Africa, and neighboring regions.

We have chosen nine countries for our analysis as they were home to over half (56%) of the region’s connections, including:

Eastern Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda;
Southern Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Botswana;
Western Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Nigeria.

South Africa ahead of the pack for median download speed

Analysis based on data from Speedtest Intelligence shows that mobile speeds varied widely across African countries during Q1 2022. When looking at mobile performance on modern chipsets across the nine countries of the SSA region, our results showed that median download speeds ranged between 11.11 Mbps (Tanzania) and 48.76 Mbps (South Africa). Median upload speeds were between 6.45 Mbps (Tanzania) and 12.58 Mbps (Botswana).

4G Availability was in excess of 50%

4G Availability describes the percentage of users on all devices who spend the majority of their time connected to 4G technology both roaming and on-network. Across the nine countries we looked at, 4G Availability exceeded 50% across the board. South Africa had the highest 4G Availability at 86.2%, followed by Côte d’Ivoire (82.1%), Kenya (81.5%), Democratic Republic of Congo (78.9%), Nigeria (77.9%), Uganda (75.9%), Tanzania (72.1%), and Botswana (69.4%). Guinea ranked last at 52.7%, largely because only Orange Guinea offers 4G services, utilizing 1800 MHz spectrum for which it was granted a license in March 2019. According to Ookla Map Elements®, Orange’s LTE network covers 14% of the Guinean population. However, that should change soon with MTN being awarded a 4G operating license in February 2022.

Johannesburg has the fastest median download speed among select African cities

When it comes to speeds in select African capital cities, Johannesburg was fastest with a median download speed of 65.54 Mbps — nearly 35% faster than that of the next-fastest city, Cape Town at 48.27 Mbps.

Gaborone stood out for posting the third-fastest median download speed on the list at 42.29 Mbps. Meanwhile, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, and Abuja ranked closely together in terms of median download and upload speeds, with median download speeds ranging between 27.77 Mbps and 33.38 Mbps, with upload speeds ranging between 8.48 Mbps and 11.92 Mbps.

The early days of 5G in Africa show green fields for operators

As 4G continues to expand in Africa, 5G is on operators’ radar. In sub-Saharan Africa, the 5G journey has already begun, but it is still early days for 5G deployment and commercialization.

South Africa was the first country in the region to launch 5G, and has since been joined by a handful of countries: Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Togo. According to GSA, there were nine commercial 5G networks in seven markets across the region by the end of May 2022. In these markets, 5G coverage remains limited to major cities. Furthermore, just over two dozen operators are either planning, or testing 5G technology or are already in the deployment stage. Regulators across the regions have also started to make spectrum available for 5G.

BOTSWANA: In February 2022, Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) offered existing and new operators an opportunity to apply for spectrum in 5G frequency bands, covering low and mid band spectrum. This will allow operators to expand their existing 4G networks and roll out 5G. Operators are allowed to re-farm their existing spectrum to augment new spectrum to enable them to roll out 5G. Shortly after, during the same month, Mascom launched four 5G sites in the capital Gaborone as part of plans to roll out 111 sites across Botswana by the end of 2022.

KENYA: The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) developed a roadmap to facilitate 5G deployment. CA is preparing to reallocate spectrum in the 3500 MHz band, which was previously assigned for FWA networks in Kenya but will be refarmed for 5G by June 30, 2022. In May 2022, Safaricom was allocated 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2600 MHz band, which was previously used by the security agencies but has been released following a change in the technology that they use.

NIGERIA: In December 2021, MTN and Mafab Communication won 100 MHz TDD each in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band. In line with the terms and conditions of the concessions, the telcos are expected to commence the rollout of their 5G networks from August 24, 2022. While Airtel Africa pulled out of Nigeria’s 5G auction, its CEO Segun Ogunsanya stated they have sufficient spectrum in other bands to launch 5G.

SOUTH AFRICA: In March 2022, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) completed a delayed 5G auction, selling spectrum across 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 2.6 GHz, and 3.5 GHz bands. Rain and Vodacom got new low-band frequency assets in the 700 MHz band while Telkom and MTN gained spectrum in 800 MHz. All bidders received spectrum in mid-bands, which is considered the sweet spot for 5G in terms of speed and availability.

MTN leads on 5G in South Africa

Despite the fact that the 5G spectrum auction was completed in March 2022, Vodacom and MTN launched 5G services beforehand using emergency, temporary spectrum allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The regulator released spectrum in April 2020 to help operators alleviate some of the challenges they faced in responding to the high demand for data during COVID-19.

In May 2020, Vodacom launched the first 5G network across Africa, in partnership with Nokia in the 3.5 GHz band. At the time of launch, the network was available in three cities — Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town — with a total of 190 5G sites. MTN followed in June 2020, using spectrum across 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, and 3500 MHz bands. In its latest report, MTN reported that in 2021, it had over 1,000 5G sites across several spectrum bands with plans to significantly scale up with 3.5GHz spectrum.

Using Speedtest intelligence data, we compared operators’ 5G performance in Q1 2022 against data from Q1 2021. In Q1 2022, MTN’s median 5G download speed reached 213.37 Mbps — decreasing by a third when compared to Q1 2021 (320.10 Mbps). Median upload speed suffered a nearly 40% decrease, going from 46.05 Mbps to 27.32 Mbps. When we examined the State of 5G Worldwide in 2021, we concluded that it’s common to see new mobile access technologies slow down as adoption scales, particularly early on in the tech cycle and as more users are logging on to existing 5G networks. As such, the downward tendency in MTN’s performance is not surprising at all. Vodacom, on the contrary, almost doubled its median 5G download speed from 69.93 Mbps to 132.11Mbps.

5G Availability, which describes the percent of users on 5G-capable devices that spend the majority of their time on 5G, continues its upward trajectory across South Africa, from just 0.9% in Q1 2021 to 5.6% in Q1 2022. MTN had shown a stronger improvement to its 5G Availability in the Q1 2021 to Q1 2022 period than its rival, growing from 1.0% to 9.7%.

Since the award of temporary spectrum in 2020, MTN has intensified its investment to increase network coverage, improve speeds, and enhance the overall customer experience. The operator has also invested in an expansion drive into rural and peri-urban areas and a major 5G rollout, reaching 15% of South Africa’s population at the end of 2021. MTN is also planning to extend its 5G coverage to 25% of the population by the end of 2022, and 60% by 2025. As part of MTN’s “Modernization of Network South Africa” (MONZA) project, MTN has been allocating a budget to extend network reach into rural communities, support 5G expansion, and restore vandalized infrastructure: ZAR 624 million ($38.7m) for Eastern Cape, ZAR 749 million ($46.5m) for Western Cape, ZAR 820 million ($50.9m) in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Vodacom’s 5G Availability had grown from 1.4% in Q1 2021 to 6.4% in Q1 2022. Vodacom reported in its FY 2022 results (for year ended March 2022) that in South Africa, capital expenditure was directed at improving capacity and resilience of the network and increasing 5G roll-out. As of March 2022, the operator’s 4G network covered 97.9% of the population, and it had also extended 5G sites to 624.

This investment drive is paying off. According to ICASA’s report, 5G population coverage reached 7.5% in 2021, an increase from a mere 0.7% in 2020. However, there is a disparity between urban and rural population coverage. 5G was present across all of the urban provinces, with Kwazulu-Natal in the lead with 20% 5G population penetration, while only three regions (Free State, Gauteng, and Western Cape) reported 1-2% population coverage in rural areas.

Having invested into spectrum and network roll-out, the operators look for ways to monetize 5G. For example, MTN has partnered with Australia’s Emerge Gaming to allow people to play cloud games on their Huawei P40 Pro phone using MTN’s 5G network. This is all in order to attract more consumers, especially video games’ enthusiasts. MTN also partnered with Huawei South Africa, Miniandante Mining, and Minetec Smart Mining to transform old mining processes using 5G.

African nations still face many hurdles to modernizing networks

It is still early days for 5G across most of Africa. South Africa is leading the region having launched commercial networks in 2020. One of the key challenges across Africa in terms of network rollouts regardless of technology relate to the cost of mobile base stations, the backhaul technology that connects mobile sites to the core network, and energy supply.

Recent World Bank report points to the three main areas where infrastructure costs can be prohibitive in rural settings, such as the mobile base station, the backhaul technology that connects mobile sites to the core network, and energy supply. To alleviate the challenges operators are taking steps and looking to innovative approaches to improve the situation. For example, Orange DRC partnered with NuRAN to construct and operate 2,000 solar-powered mobile towers, with a particular focus on rural communities, which will cover at least 10 million people in rural areas. These lower-cost “light towers,” are better suited to covering remote locations with small populations and come with significant cost savings. One of the reasons for lower costs is being powered by renewable energy solutions, particularly solar, rather than more expensive diesel generators.

Device affordability is another issue. There are currently a few initiatives across the continent aimed at expanding connectivity to areas where it’s lacking. For instance, Google partnered with Safaricom in Kenya for a program that allows customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in installments, while MTN Uganda reinforced a partnership with M-Kopa in March 2022 to introduce 4G smartphones on installment payment terms. MTN also inked a partnership with M-Kopa in 2021 that facilitated the sale of more than 70,000 smartphones, financing over 2 million customers across Africa. Orange in Cote d’Ivoire launched a similar initiative in partnership with Yabx and Cofina. Yabx, a Dutch firm that offers credit across multiple countries in Africa, will provide the technology and manage the complete customer journey that will enable Cofina, an Ivorian financial institution that provides SME financing, to launch plans for Orange subscribers. Bringing 5G devices into the African markets will be even more challenging.

Operators continue to innovate and we are keeping a close eye on how the network deployments are progressing and the network performance end users experience. If you are interested in benchmarking your performance or if you’d like to learn more about internet speeds and performance in other markets around the world visit the Speedtest Global Index™.

About the Author

Sylwia Kechiche

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Isla McKetta | December 20, 2021

Growing and Slowing: The State of 5G Worldwide in 2021

5G continues to offer new and exciting ways of rethinking everything from streaming video to performing remote surgery. However, not everyone shares equally in these possibilities as many countries do not have access to 5G and even those that do, do not experience the same level of performance from their 5G connections. We examined Speedtest Intelligence® data from Q3 2021 Speedtest® results to see how 5G speeds have changed, where download speeds are the fastest at the country and capital level, where 5G deployments have increased and what worldwide 5G Availability looked like in Q3 2021. We also looked at countries that don’t yet have 5G to understand where consumers are seeing improvements in 4G access.

5G slowed down at the global level

Median-Speeds-Worldwide_1221-01

It’s common to see new mobile access technologies slow down as adoption scales, particularly early on in the tech cycle. Over the past year from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021, the median global 5G download speed fell to 166.13 Mbps, down from 206.22 Mbps in Q3 2020. Median upload speed over 5G also slowed to 21.08 Mbps (from 29.52 Mbps) during the same period.

More users are logging on to existing 5G networks, and we’re also at the stage in the evolution of 5G where countries that have historically had slower speeds are starting to offer 5G. In addition, the widespread use of dynamic spectrum sharing that has been used to boost early 5G coverage weighs on 5G download speeds. While the dip in speeds looks like a letdown, it’s more of a compromise to enable broader access. With additional spectrum and further deployments slated for 2022, we anticipate speeds will begin to pick up again.

South Korea had the fastest 5G in the world

ookla_5g-download_performance_countries_1221-01-1

South Korea had the fastest median download speed over 5G during Q3 2021, leading a top 10 list that included Norway, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Sweden, China, Taiwan and New Zealand. Sweden, China, Taiwan and New Zealand were new to the top 10 in 2021 while South Africa (whose 5G was brand new last year), Spain and Hungary fell out of the top 10.

5G expanded to 13 additional countries

According to the Ookla® 5G Map^™, there were 5G deployments in 112 countries as of November 30, 2021. That’s up from 99 countries on the same date a year ago. The total number of deployments increased dramatically during the same time period with 85,602 deployments on November 30, 2021 compared to 17,428 on November 30, 2020, highlighting the degree to which 5G networks scaled during the year. Note that there are often multiple deployments in a given city.

Seoul and Oslo lead world capitals for 5G

ookla_5g-download_performance_capitals_1221-01

Speedtest Intelligence data from Q3 2021 shows a wide range of median 5G speeds among global capitals. Seoul, South Korea and Oslo, Norway were in the lead with 530.83 Mbps and 513.08 Mbps, respectively; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Doha Qatar followed. Brasilia, Brazil had the slowest median download speed over 5G on our list, followed by Warsaw, Poland; Cape Town, South Africa and Rome, Italy. Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway had some of the the fastest median upload speeds over 5G at 56.26 Mbps and 49.95 Mbps, respectively, while Cape Town had the slowest at 14.53 Mbps.

The U.S. had the highest 5G Availability

The presence of 5G is only one indicator in a market, because even in markets where 5G has launched, coverage and adoption can be pretty low. We analyzed 5G Availability to see what percent of users on 5G-capable devices spent the majority of their time on 5G, both roaming and on-network during Q3 2021.

ookla_5g-availability_countries_1221-01

The United States had the highest 5G Availability at 49.2%, followed by the Netherlands (45.1%), South Korea (43.8%), Kuwait (35.5%) and Qatar (34.8%). Brazil had the lowest 5G Availability on our list at 0.8%, followed by Sweden (1.5%), South Africa (2.7%), New Zealand (2.9%) and Hungary (3.6%).

Not all 5G networks are created equal

Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data shows a growing disparity in the performance of 5G networks worldwide, even among the pioneer markets who were among the first to launch the new technology. We see leading markets such as South Korea, Norway, the UAE and China pulling well ahead of key European markets, the U.S. and Japan on 5G download speeds, creating what increasingly looks like two tiers of 5G markets.

ookla_5g-download_performance_1221-01

Part of the reason for this divergence is access to key 5G spectrum bands, with Verizon and AT&T in the U.S. for example, soon to deploy their C-band spectrum holdings for 5G use. However, what really seems to separate these markets is the level of 5G network densification. The number of people per 5G base station ranges from 319 in South Korea and 1,531 in China, to 4,224 in the EU and 6,590 in the US, according to the European 5G Observatory’s International Scoreboard during October 2021.

Despite the noise around 6G, 5G still has a long way to run

Median 5G mobile download speeds across these markets are respectable relative to the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) IMT-2020 target of 100 Mbps for user experienced download data rates. However, 5G Speedtest® results in each market demonstrate significant variability, with the bottom 10th percentile only recording speeds in excess of the IMT-2020 target in South Korea and Norway, and falling significantly short in many other markets, with Spain, Italy and the U.S. below 20 Mbps.

The story gets worse for upload speeds, where no market’s median speed broke the IMT-2020 recommended 50 Mbps, and where the bottom 10th percentile lay in single digits across the board. Operators are clearly prioritizing download speeds over upload, which makes sense given the asymmetric nature of demand, with most consumer applications requiring higher download speeds. However, as operators increasingly look to target the enterprise market with 5G connectivity and consumer demand for services such as video calling and mobile gaming continues to rise, operators will need to boost upload speeds.

ookla_5g-upload_performance_1221-01-1

Demand for mobile internet bandwidth continues to grow, up 43% year-on-year in Q3 2021 according to Ericsson’s latest mobility report. Looking ahead to 2022, operators will need to increase the capacity of their 5G networks to tackle this growing demand while driving network speeds to new heights. We’ve seen the impact the deployment of new spectrum can have on congested networks during 2021, with Reliance Jio witnessing a bump in 4G LTE performance and consumer sentiment following its acquisition of additional spectrum in India.

Where 5G still fails to reach

Speedtest Intelligence showed 70 countries in the world where more than 20% of samples were from 2G and 3G connections (combined) during Q3 2021 and met our statistical threshold to be included. These are mostly countries where 5G is still aspirational for a majority of the population. As excited as we are about the expansion of 5G, we do not want to see these countries left behind. Not only are 2G and 3G decades old, they are only sufficient for basic voice and texting, social media and navigation apps. To deliver rich media experiences or video calling, users need access to 4G or higher. Having so many consumers on 2G and 3G also prevents mobile operators from refarming that spectrum to make 4G and 5G networks more efficient.

Countries That Still Rely Heavily on 2G and 3G Connections

Speedtest IntelligenceⓇ | Q3 2021

Country	2G & 3G Samples
Central African Republic	89.9%
Palestine	84.7%
Yemen	72.4%
Turkmenistan	71.8%
Micronesia	56.3%
Madagascar	55.0%
Belarus	53.2%
Rwanda	51.7%
Kiribati	48.4%
Equatorial Guinea	47.6%
Afghanistan	44.4%
South Sudan	43.4%
Guyana	42.3%
Guinea	37.0%
Angola	36.8%
Cape Verde	35.9%
Tajikistan	35.6%
Zimbabwe	34.7%
Benin	34.4%
Togo	33.8%
Ghana	33.0%
Sierra Leone	31.7%
Antigua and Barbuda	30.2%
Vanuatu	30.1%
Lesotho	30.0%
Syria	29.6%
Moldova	29.4%
Saint Kitts and Nevis	28.9%
Mozambique	28.8%
Sudan	28.4%
Palau	28.3%
Grenada	28.1%
Tanzania	27.6%
Uganda	27.5%
Niger	27.5%
Gabon	27.5%
Haiti	27.4%
Suriname	27.4%
Tonga	27.3%
Liberia	27.0%
Namibia	26.7%
Swaziland	26.5%
The Gambia	26.3%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	26.3%
Dominica	26.3%
Somalia	26.1%
Cook Islands	26.0%
Zambia	25.9%
Barbados	25.7%
Armenia	25.5%
Algeria	25.4%
Papua New Guinea	25.2%
Jamaica	24.5%
Venezuela	24.2%
Ethiopia	24.1%
Uzbekistan	24.0%
El Salvador	23.5%
Honduras	23.1%
Nigeria	23.0%
Solomon Islands	22.8%
Caribbean Netherlands	22.7%
Botswana	22.3%
Anguilla	21.7%
Mauritania	20.6%
Saint Lucia	20.5%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	20.3%
Burundi	20.3%
Ecuador	20.2%
Ukraine	20.1%
Trinidad and Tobago	20.0%

We were pleased to see the following countries come off the list from last year, having dropped below the 20% threshold: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belize, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Laos, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Tunisia. While countries like Palestine, Suriname, Ethiopia, Haiti and Antigua and Barbuda are still on this list, they have improved the percentage of their samples on these outmoded technologies when compared to last year (dropping 10-15 points, respectively), 2G and 3G samples in Belarus increased 6.7 points when comparing Q3 2021 to Q3 2020.

We’re excited to see how performance levels will normalize as 5G expands to more and more countries and access improves. Keep track of how well your country is performing on Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index^™.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Kathy Macdonald | March 2, 2021

World Bank Uses Speedtest Data to Analyze Internet Performance in Africa

Early last year, Ookla® joined the World Bank’s Development Data Partnership platform as part of our Ookla for Good initiative. Working with such talented, data-driven people focused on the public good is exciting and we have been thrilled to see proposed ideas quickly develop into full research projects. Niccolò Comini, a Consultant in the Chief Economist’s Office of the Infrastructure Vice Presidency at the World Bank, recently published one such project, “The Effect of COVID-19 Lockdown Measures on Internet Speed: An Empirical Analysis of 18 Countries in Africa.”

Taking into consideration the digital divide challenges faced by so many, the report highlights the importance of reliable internet access for all — not only during COVID-19, but also moving forward in a world increasingly reliant on internet connectivity for learning and economic success. The supporting research leveraged fixed and mobile broadband data from Speedtest Intelligence® for a period of 12 weeks, across the peak of the pandemic and implementation of “shelter in place” policies.

Key findings

Increase in internet usage – The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown measures have increased the amount of internet traffic around the world. Countries in Africa reflect this global trend, reporting higher data traffic during the months in which “stay at home” orders were established. However, this increase in traffic was not temporary; countries continue to reflect a surge in traffic compared to the pre-lockdown weeks.
Public and private sector reaction – As a consequence of higher internet usage, public and private stakeholders have promoted a wide range of measures to facilitate access to the internet. For instance, some regulators have enabled temporary spectrum bands to meet the increase in demand while private operators have offered more affordable data plans.
Internet speed is slow – On average, the data recorded by Ookla Speedtest® reported low mobile and fixed internet speeds across the 18 African countries surveyed. Speed was below 10 Mbps, considered the lower bound for a good quality broadband service, even before the onset of the pandemic. In contrast to what might be expected in OECD countries, mobile internet generally provides faster service than fixed.
Effect of the lockdown on internet speed was modest and temporary – Findings from the sample of 18 African countries indicate a negative effect of the lockdown on mobile (-17%) and fixed internet speeds (-5%), particularly in the first week of lockdown. Some countries also experienced a decline before the stay at home orders, suggesting that some activities shifted to remote connectivity before the official lockdown mandates. However, networks across the continent reacted well.
Public and private sector partnerships and cooperation was and remains critical for ensuring network resilience – The findings of this study demonstrate the resiliency of digital infrastructure in Africa and also highlight and reflect the benefits of partnership between public and private stakeholders to manage traffic surges. The development community should encourage and leverage these partnerships to achieve the ambitious objective of universal access to the internet.

Read the full World Bank report.

We are glad to work with organizations like the World Bank to provide data that can help improve the state of internet performance around the world. Learn more about Ookla for Good.

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Kathy Macdonald

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Ookla Research™ Articles

Isla McKetta | December 10, 2020

Massive Expansions and Huge Improvements in Speed: The Worldwide Growth of 5G in 2020

The rapid expansion of 5G in countries across the globe was a bright spot in a year that needed one. But just how great is the news? We examined Speedtest Intelligence® data from over 60.5 million Speedtest® results during Q3 2020 to see how much speeds have improved, where download speeds are the fastest at the country and capital level, where 5G deployments have increased and what worldwide 5G coverage looks like now. We also looked at countries where 5G doesn’t yet reach to understand where good news might be on the horizon.

We have only included countries with commercially available 5G on these lists in order to provide a more accurate view of the performance consumers can reasonably expect. While our data shows results for many countries where 5G is not yet commercially available, these tests are likely results from engineers testing their own networks. In addition, we’re only providing analysis for countries with more than 200 samples during Q3 2020. The bars shown in our charts are 95% confidence intervals, which represent the range of values in which the true value is likely to be. Countries marked in tables with an asterisk first launched 5G commercially in 2020.

5G downloads were 954% faster than 4G at the global level

The worldwide median download speed over 5G was 954% faster than that over 4G during Q3 2020. Median upload speed over 5G was 311% faster than that over 4G. Consumers are eagerly adopting the new technology and many have wanted to measure the full throughput capacity of their network connection. In Q3 2020 alone, there were 4,324,788 Speedtest results over 5G.
Median-Speeds-Worldwide_1220-1

United Arab Emirates had the fastest 5G

United Arab Emirates topped the list of countries with the fastest top 10% 5G download speed in Q3 2020. Top 10% (or 90th percentile) measures the speeds seen by the fastest 10% of users and is a way to gauge what each country’s networks are capable of. Saudi Arabia was second for top 10% 5G download speed, Norway third, Spain fourth and Japan fifth.
Fastest-Countries-Top-5G-Download-Speed_1220-2

Another way to measure 5G performance is to look at median 5G download speed, which is a better predictor of the kind of performance most 5G customers can expect. Norway was the country with the fastest median download speed over 5G during Q3 2020. U.A.E. was second in this category, South Africa third, Saudi Arabia fourth and Spain fifth.
Fastest-Countries-Median-5G-Download-Speed_1220-2

It’s notable that Japan was on the list of 10 countries with the fastest top 10% 5G download speed but not on the list of 10 countries with the fastest median download speed over 5G. No matter how fast a country’s mobile infrastructure is, many other factors go into median 5G speeds, including device adoption and spectrum allocation.

Abu Dhabi tops list of 5G speeds in world capitals

Our examination of 5G performance for 18 world capital cities with 5G during Q3 2020 found that Abu Dhabi had the fastest median download speed over 5G at 546.81 Mbps. Riyadh was second, Madrid third, Seoul fourth and Kuwait City fifth. As we saw at the country level, median upload speed was much lower than download speed.
Median-5G-Performance-Capitals_1220-2

How 5G performance and time spent compare within regions

We looked more closely at 5G performance across several intergovernmental organizations and trade blocs to get a better sense of how countries are performing in comparison to their neighbors and trade partners. We also calculated Time Spent on 5G, the proportion of time that users with 5G-capable devices spent on 5G, for each country.

Italy had the fastest 5G among G7 countries, U.S. the slowest

Italy had the fastest median download speed over 5G of all the G7 countries. Japan was second, Canada third, the U.K. fourth and Germany fifth. The U.S. had the highest Time Spent on 5G, followed by Canada. For a deeper analysis of 5G in the U.K., read our previous coverage. Because France launched commercially available 5G only within the last couple of weeks, we have not included it on this table.
5G-Performance-G7-Countries_1220

South Africa was the only country in the African Union with sufficient 5G to rate

As we saw above, South Africa’s impressive median download speed over 5G ranked the country third in the world during Q3 2020. South Africa was only one of two countries in the African Union to have commercially available 5G during Q3 2020. The other, Madagascar, did not have sufficient samples to properly analyze. Time Spent on 5G in South Africa was very low, an indication that 5G is not yet widely available there.
5G-Performance-Africa_1220

South Korea had the fastest 5G in APEC countries, U.S. the slowest

A median download speed over 5G of 411.11 Mbps put South Korea comfortably at the top of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries with the fastest 5G during Q3 2020. Thailand was second, Australia third, China fourth and Taiwan fifth. 5G speeds represented the largest improvement over 4G in the Philippines where the median download speed over 4G during Q3 2020 (9.36 Mbps) was substantially lower than that of other countries on this list.

South Korea and the U.S. tied for highest Time Spent on 5G among APEC countries during Q3 2020, followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan.
5G-Performance-APEC_1220

Spain had the fastest 5G in the E.U., Poland the slowest

Spain showed the fastest median download speed over 5G among the 11 European Union (E.U.) countries with sufficient 5G samples to rank during Q3 2020. Hungary was second, Finland third, Romania fourth and Ireland fifth. Spain’s median download speed over 5G also represented the largest gain over 4G among all of these countries, partially because Spain had the second slowest median download speed over 4G. France is not included on this list because 5G did not become commercially available in the country until after Q3 2020.

The Netherlands had the highest Time Spent on 5G among E.U. countries during Q3 2020, indicating that customers with 5G phones are able to spend far more time on 5G there than in other E.U. countries. Denmark was second for Time Spent on 5G among EU countries in Q3 2020 and Finland third.
5G-Performance-EU_1220

U.A.E had the fastest 5G in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

With the second fastest median download speed over 5G in the world, U.A.E. was also the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country with the fastest 5G during Q3 2020. Saudi Arabia was second and Qatar third. While Oman does have commercially available 5G, there were insufficient samples in the country during Q3 2020 to properly analyze performance.

5G represented the largest improvement over 4G in Kuwait and Bahrain, countries that had slower median download speeds over 4G than their neighbors.

Time Spent on 5G was relatively high in all the GCC countries on this list, except Bahrain, when compared to other countries in the world during Q3 2020. Qatar showed the highest Time Spent on 5G among GCC countries in Q3 2020 at 16.0%. U.A.E. was second and Saudi Arabia third.
5G-Performance-GCC_1220

Brazil was the only MERCOSUR country with sufficient 5G to rate

Brazil’s median download speed over 5G of 84.60 Mbps during Q3 2020 may not seem fast for 5G, but it still puts Brazil well ahead of other countries in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), most of which do not yet have 5G at all. We did see 5G results in Colombia, but there were insufficient samples to properly compare.

Time Spent on 5G in Brazil during Q3 2020 was not quite one percent, indicating that customers do not have much access to 5G yet.
5G-Performance-MERCOSUR_1220

The U.S., Europe and Asia see widespread 5G coverage

Data from Cell Analytics™ shows a global view of 5G coverage in Q3 2020. This map, based on 5G connectivity data for opted-in Speedtest users, shows that 5G is spreading rapidly across the U.S., Europe, the Arabian Peninsula and Asia. In other regions, 5G is primarily available in larger cities, if at all.
Global-5G-Coverage_1220

99 countries worldwide had 5G, in 14,643 total cities

The number of countries with 5G deployments increased 62.3% between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, with 99 countries having 5G deployments at the end of Q3 2020, according to the Ookla 5G Map™. There were 14,643 cities worldwide with 5G deployments at the end of Q3 2020, a 1,671% increase over Q3 2019. The total number of deployments worldwide was 17,046. The counts here and throughout this section include commercially available 5G as well as 5G networks with limited availability and those in pre-release.

Countries with the Most 5G Cities

Ookla 5G Map™ | Q3 2020

Country	Numbers of Cities with 5G
United States	7,583
Germany	2,312
Austria	1,104
Netherlands*	1,009
Switzerland	554
Thailand*	325
Ireland	214
Puerto Rico	187
United Kingdom	169
Kuwait	97

The U.S. had the most cities with 5G deployments at the end of Q3 2020 with 7,583. Germany was second, Austria third, the Netherlands fourth and Switzerland fifth. A deployment is when a provider has some level of 5G presence in a city. A city can have multiple deployments when more than one provider is present.

Countries with the Largest Growth in Number of Deployments

Ookla 5G Map™ | Q3 2020

Country	5G Deployments as of Q3 2020	% Change Q3 2020 vs Q3 2019
Netherlands*	1,071	50,350%
Thailand*	451	32,401%
United States	7,808	21,566%
Germany	2,417	11,460%
Canada*	93	7,600%
Austria	1,173	4,918%
Ireland	236	4,180%
Poland	81	3,150%
Japan*	75	2,050%
Oman	50	2,000%

The Netherlands showed the largest percentage change in the number of 5G deployments between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020 with a 50,350% jump from two deployments in Q3 2019 to 1,071 in Q3 2020. Thailand saw the second largest percentage increase, the U.S. third, Germany fourth and Canada fifth.

Most early trials and commercial deployments of 5G spectrum allocations around the world have been centered around fallow swaths of the mid-band (3.3 GHz – 4.2 GHz) spectrum. With the recent commercialization of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) across all major 5G infrastructure vendors, there is now increasing demand for 5G support on many existing 4G frequencies, ranging from 600 MHz to 2.5 GHz. In unique 5G markets like Japan, there is an additional need for the 4.5 GHz band as well as the millimeter wave (FR2).

In the United States, early deployments leveraged millimeter wave frequency bands in the 28 GHz and the 39 GHz, which delivered impressive speeds in a very constrained footprint. The rapid 5G deployment in the 600 MHz band has added a substantial nationwide 5G footprint — and with that, much wider 5G availability for many more Americans. With the recent merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, the deployment of 2.5 GHz spectrum has been significantly accelerated, which should improve both network efficiency and user experience on T-Mobile’s network. Additionally, next year’s availability of 5G Carrier Aggregation will allow T-Mobile to combine 600 MHz with 2.5 GHz to deliver improved 5G speeds on top of the existing nationwide footprint. In addition, DSS has recently been deployed by AT&T and Verizon, which allows operators to choose from existing low-band spectrum assets (850 MHz) and deliver both LTE and 5G at the same time. This feature alone doesn’t add a significant boost in perceived user experience, but will certainly improve the 5G footprint.

China showed the highest percentage of 5G test samples

Another way to measure 5G adoption is to look at the proportion of samples taken over 5G relative to the total number of samples on all technologies. Speedtest Intelligence is uniquely positioned to measure global growth in 5G because of the worldwide adoption of Speedtest apps. China had the highest percentage of 5G Speedtest results compared to other mobile technology types in Q3 2020 at 18.9%. South Korea was second, Hong Kong third, Puerto Rico fourth and Qatar fifth.

Countries with the Most 5G

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020

Country	5G Samples as a % of Total
China	18.9%
South Korea	15.8%
Hong Kong (S.A.R.)*	7.9%
Puerto Rico	6.7%
Qatar	5.7%
United States	5.5%
Netherlands*	4.9%
United Arab Emirates	4.6%
Kuwait	4.6%
Australia	4.2%

What 5G will look like in 2021

With recently announced device chipset advancements expected in 2021, including 5G Carrier Aggregation, operators will be able to combine two 5G frequency bands in the sub-6GHz (FR1) range, allowing not only faster speeds, but also greater coverage. More importantly, the ability to combine Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Division Duplexing (TDD) FR1 channels will enable operators to leverage low-band frequencies (sub-1GHz) for uplink transmissions (user device to cell site), while combining the low-band with the mid-band (2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz) on the downlink. This should significantly expand the availability of fast 5G download speeds across larger geographies.

Similarly, DSS — which is a stepping stone to standalone 5G and allows for the simultaneous delivery of 4G and 5G technology on the same spectrum slice — will enable operators to combine already-deployed FDD spectrum with dedicated mid-band spectrum for an enhanced standalone 5G experience. This will unlock the full potential of 5G networks, such as ultra low latency and network slicing, while delivering an improved mobile experience to users.

Where 5G fails to reach

During Q3 2020 Speedtest Intelligence showed 55 countries in the world (with more than 200 samples) where more than 20% of samples were from 2G and 3G connections (combined). These are countries where, in many cases, 5G is still aspirational. As excited as we are about the expansion of 5G, we do not want to see these countries left behind.

Countries That Still Rely Heavily on 2G and 3G Connections

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020

Country	2G & 3G Samples	4G Samples
Turkmenistan	74.9%	25.1%
Rwanda	52.3%	47.7%
Iraq	49.4%	50.6%
Belarus	46.5%	53.5%
Afghanistan	46.0%	54.0%
Antigua and Barbuda	40.2%	59.8%
Tajikistan	40.2%	59.8%
Suriname	39.7%	60.3%
Haiti	37.7%	62.3%
Syria	37.5%	62.5%
Ghana	36.0%	64.0%
Ethiopia	35.0%	65.0%
Mozambique	34.7%	65.3%
Benin	34.3%	65.7%
Angola	34.1%	65.9%
El Salvador	32.5%	67.5%
Moldova	31.8%	68.2%
Venezuela	30.3%	69.7%
Tanzania	30.0%	70.0%
Papua New Guinea	29.5%	70.5%
Jamaica	29.4%	70.6%
Sudan	29.2%	70.8%
Algeria	29.0%	71.0%
Namibia	28.5%	71.5%
Zimbabwe	28.5%	71.5%
Somalia	28.4%	71.6%
Nicaragua	28.1%	71.9%
Armenia	28.1%	71.9%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	28.1%	71.9%
Uzbekistan	27.8%	72.2%
Cameroon	27.5%	72.5%
Zambia	27.4%	72.6%
Uganda	26.6%	73.4%
Trinidad and Tobago	26.6%	73.4%
Honduras	26.5%	73.5%
Bangladesh	26.3%	73.7%
Burkina Faso	26.0%	74.0%
Ukraine	25.8%	74.2%
Nigeria	25.7%	74.3%
DR Congo	24.6%	75.4%
Costa Rica	24.3%	75.7%
Botswana	24.1%	75.9%
Libya	22.9%	77.1%
Azerbaijan	22.9%	77.1%
Ecuador	22.8%	77.2%
Mali	22.4%	77.6%
Mongolia	21.8%	78.2%
Maldives	21.6%	78.4%
Mauritius	21.3%	78.7%
Tunisia	21.0%	79.0%
Belize	20.7%	79.3%
Laos	20.5%	79.5%
Kenya	20.3%	79.7%
Paraguay	20.1%	79.9%
Côte d’Ivoire	20.0%	80.0%

In markets where 4G layers haven’t been deployed or substantially covered, end users fall back to the circuit-switched network (2G, 3G). These decades-old network technologies should be sufficient for basic voice and texting, social media, and navigation apps, but cannot deliver rich media experiences or video calling. Unfortunately, many countries on this list are places where consumers rely primarily on mobile phones for their internet connectivity.

5G is radically changing the speeds and capabilities of mobile networks around the world. If the current growth rate continues, it won’t be long before most nations have access to 5G. But there are nations and subsets of subscribers who may not see the benefits of 5G for years to come. We will continue reporting on 5G achievements across the globe and watching speeds in general on the Speedtest Global Index™.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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How Boingo Leverages Ookla's Comprehensive Network Intelligence

Ookla Joins Ericsson's Leading Telecommunications Open RApp System

MTN Performed Best Among Operator Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Key messages:

MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speed in Q2 2022

Vodafone in Johannesburg stole the show

MTN got ahead of Orange, Airtel, and Vodacom

Airtel versus MTN

MTN versus Orange

Vodacom versus Airtel

Orange versus Vodacom versus Airtel

MTN versus Vodacom

Mobile networks don’t exist in a vacuum

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Sylwia Kechiche

South Africa Fixed Broadband Speeds Up as Fiber Takes Off

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Key messages:

South African median fixed speeds doubled in the past three years, thanks to fiber growth

There is still room to grow for South Africa to catch up with other BRICS markets

The rise of fiber network operators

Cool Ideas took the lead as fiber land grab heats up

Gauteng province speeds ahead the country’s average

Residents of Johannesburg had the fastest broadband

More is needed to improve fixed networks performance and adoption

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Sylwia Kechiche

A Global Look at Mobile Modem Market Share and Device Performance

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Global modem market share

Device performance is affected by market factors

Device performance in 5G markets

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Isla McKetta

South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others

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Key Messages

Narrowing the digital divide for wider societal benefits

Southern Africa had the fastest median download speed across African regions

South Africa ahead of the pack for median download speed

4G Availability was in excess of 50%

Johannesburg has the fastest median download speed among select African cities

The early days of 5G in Africa show green fields for operators

MTN leads on 5G in South Africa

African nations still face many hurdles to modernizing networks

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Sylwia Kechiche

Growing and Slowing: The State of 5G Worldwide in 2021

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5G slowed down at the global level

South Korea had the fastest 5G in the world

5G expanded to 13 additional countries

Seoul and Oslo lead world capitals for 5G

The U.S. had the highest 5G Availability

Not all 5G networks are created equal

Despite the noise around 6G, 5G still has a long way to run

Where 5G still fails to reach

Countries That Still Rely Heavily on 2G and 3G Connections

Speedtest IntelligenceⓇ | Q3 2021

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Isla McKetta

World Bank Uses Speedtest Data to Analyze Internet Performance in Africa

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Key findings

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Kathy Macdonald

Massive Expansions and Huge Improvements in Speed: The Worldwide Growth of 5G in 2020

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5G downloads were 954% faster than 4G at the global level

United Arab Emirates had the fastest 5G

Abu Dhabi tops list of 5G speeds in world capitals

How 5G performance and time spent compare within regions

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020