Multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN has been named the best network in sub-Saharan Africa, according to data from Ookla and UmlauT.
With billions of tests and counting, Speedtest by Ookla the global leader in internet performance testing and metrics used insights from its data platform, “Speedtest,” to measure four network providers in Sub-Saharan Africa which are Airtel, MTN, Orange, and Vodacom, which also account for 62% of internet subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This test was conducted to determine which network providers have the fastest internet speeds and which cities have the fastest internet connections.
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After the test was completed, MTN South Africa came in the first position with a median download speed of 65.95 Mbps, followed by Vodacom South Africa and Safaricom Kenya, with median download speeds of 48.71 Mbps and 36.25 Mbps, respectively.
When the internet download speeds of major African cities were conducted, Vodacom Johannesburg took first place with a speed of more than 81 Mbps while MTN Cape Town and MTN Johannesburg came in second and third, with speeds of more than 60 Mbps in both cities respectively.
The report also revealed that in Nigeria, MTN’s median download speed is currently at 26.3 Mbps.
MTN outperformed Orange in Côte d’Ivoire and Vodacom in South Africa, both in terms of median download and upload speeds. While MTN had faster download speeds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MTN outperformed Airtel in Rwanda in terms of median download speed.
MTN Nigeria once again outperformed Airtel in terms of 4G availability, with MTN having 83.8% 4G availability against Airtel’s 77.9%.
Recall that MTN last month launched its 5G network in a few cities in Nigeria, showing its readiness to offer Nigerians the best of service with 5G technology making it the first telecom operator in the country to roll out 5G technology services on its network.
According to the company, the implementation of the 5G network was to accelerate the actualization of the national targets in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan, the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, as well as other sectoral policies designed to enhance Nigeria’s digital transformation.
MTN is no doubt the largest mobile network in Africa, in terms of indigenous networks, where the top five are owned and operated by non-African companies.
With a subscriber base of 152.3 million, the company employs 17 509 workers, operating in 21 African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan and Congo.