The latest Mobile Network Experience report from Opensignal shows that Vodacom has the most consistent quality among South Africa’s mobile operators, while MTN leads in 5G. But it’s smaller market player Cell C that has shown the biggest improvement in key categories.

The report is based on an analysis of the mobile network experience of South Africa’s four main mobile network operators – Cell C, MTN, Telkom and Vodacom – in the 90-day period from 1 May to 29 July 2024.

“MTN continues to hold the lion’s share of awards, leading in seven out of 13 metrics,” Opensignal said on Thursday. “The operator retains outright wins for overall download speed experience, 5G availability, and 5G video and 5G games experience.”

Vodacom came second in terms of medal hauls, with top scores in consistent quality, 5G download speed, 5G upload speed, coverage and 5G coverage experience — followed by Cell C and Telkom.

“It’s worth noting that Cell C users have seen the biggest increases across overall experience metrics compared to the last report. The quality of experience streaming on-demand video on Cell C has improved by 25%, while the average download and upload speeds have grown by 30% and 53%, respectively,” it said.

“These improvements are particularly significant given that Cell C has not been investing in its own network infrastructure due to severe financial difficulties in recent years. These challenges led to the company’s recapitalisation and the establishment of new wholesale and roaming agreements with MTN and Vodacom.”

Key findings

Some of the main findings of the report include:

South Africa’s overall download speeds improved by up to 30%, with Opensignal users in South Africa seeing an improvement in download speed experience across the board. Cell C users observed the largest boost (30%), followed by Telkom (11%), MTN (5%) and Vodacom (5%) users, compared to the March 2024 report.
MTN’s leadership remains unchallenged in this category, with its overall download speeds averaging 50% faster than second-placed Cell C and Vodacom.
Cell C users reported the biggest improvement in upload speed experience, pushing Cell C to the top spot, sharing the win with MTN.
Cell C is top in South Africa for overall video experience. In the previous report, all four operators shared the video experience award. “This time, Cell C has emerged as the outright winner, meaning users in South Africa enjoy the best quality of on-demand mobile video streaming experience on Cell C’s network.”
MTN is the outright winner of the 5G video and games experience awards.
MTN 5G users spend the greatest proportion of time connected to an active 5G signal, with Opensignal 5G users on MTN’s network connecting to 5G on average for 11.5% of the time.
Vodacom leads in consistent quality, an award it has won outright for the third consecutive time. “This means that Vodacom users continue to see the greatest proportion of tests that meet the minimum thresholds to support more demanding commonly used mobile applications, such as video calling or uploading an image to social media.” — (c) 2024 NewsCentral Media