Telecommunications giant MTN has secured the title of South Africa’s best mobile network for 2022 in MyBroadband Insights’ Mobile Network Quality Report.

The yearly report, released on January 16, shows that MTN also “reigned supreme” in all major South African metropolitan areas.

The Mobile Network Quality Report is based on 1.36-million speed tests recorded between January 1 and December 31, 2022, on MyBroadband’s Android Speed Test App.

Overall, in 2022, South Africa had an average download speed of 49.19 Mb/s and an average upload speed of 14.15 Mb/s, the report shows.

MTN had the highest average download speed at 68.84 Mb/s and upload speed at 19.77 Mb/s, followed by Vodacom with 48.58 Mb/s download speed and 11.62 Mb/s upload speed.

The Mobile Network Quality Report reveals that Telkom had a download speed of 28.54 Mb/s and a 9.95 Mb/s upload speed during 2022.

Cell C and Rain had average download speeds of 23.41 Mb/s and 15.14 Mb/s and upload speeds of 9.02 Mb/s and 10.33 Mb/s, respectively.

According to the yearly report, MTN also had the best network in Tshwane, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, eThekwini, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Ekurhuleni.

“MTN’s exceptional performance results from outspending its rivals on infrastructure investment over the past five years. Vodacom has, however, started to spend more than MTN over the last two years, which started to show in the latest results,” the report indicates.

According to the report, during 2022, there was a sharp increase in fifth-generation (5G) tests as operators expanded their 5G footprint to more locations across South Africa.

“The speed test results also revealed that extreme load-shedding towards the end of 2022 caused unstable connections among all operators. Mobile operators are now investing in improved batteries and backup generators to mitigate the effects of prolonged power outages,” the report concludes.