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 “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 of 68.84 Mb/s and upload speed of 19.77 Mb/s, followed by Vodacom with a 48.58 Mb/s download speed and an 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.

Overall, the City of Tshwane had an average download speed of 64.02 Mb/s and an upload speed of 16.75 Mb/s, while the City of Cape Town recorded download speeds of 48.54 Mb/s and upload speeds of 12.61 Mb/s.

The City of Johannesburg, eThekwini and Mangaung had download speeds of 69.74 Mb/s, 60.57 Mb/s and 50.05 Mb/ respectively and upload speeds of 19.87 Mb/s, 15.84 Mb/s and 13.63 Mb/s.

During 2022, Nelson Mandela Bay had download speeds of 49.91 Mb/s and upload speeds of 10.83 Mb/s, while Ekurhuleni had download speeds of 57.40 Mb/s and upload speeds of 17.98 Mb/s.

“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.