New independent research shows that MTN has South Africa’s best mobile network and beats its rivals in every category measured, from consistent quality to download and upload speeds.

According to a new report (PDF) by crowd-sourced data company Tutela, MTN leads rival Vodacom in all categories — excellent consistent quality, core consistent quality, download and upload throughput, and latency (or network round-trip times).

A connection that reaches the “excellent” threshold is sufficient for use cases such as 1080p (full-HD) video streaming and multiplayer gaming, while a “core” connection will stream standard-definition video or handle things like Web browsing or uploading photos to social media.

Vodacom came in a “healthy second place”, with only a 3.9% difference in “excellent consistent quality” and a 0.8% difference in “core consistent quality” for common coverage areas in South Africa, it said.

Telkom was placed third in the report and Cell C fourth.

MTN provides its users with an “excellent” connection in 80.6% of tests, it said. Tutela’s “excellent consistent quality” thresholds represent a range of use cases including real-time mobile online gaming, HD video streaming and group HD video calls.

“All operators in South Africa reached the threshold of 90% for ‘core consistent quality’, with MTN setting the benchmark at 95.9%, meaning nearly all successful connections should be able to support day-to-day uses like social media sharing, SD video streaming and general Web browsing,” Tutela said in a statement.