“Download speeds in Johannesburg ranged from 25.53 Mbps to 51.49 Mbps, while in Port Elizabeth speeds were much lower, ranging from 6.36 Mbps to 30.11 Mbps. Typically fibre networks first reach rich and affluent communities that present a fertile ground for their services. For example, a northern suburb of Johannesburg — Parkhurst — was Vumatel’s first suburb,” said Ookla principal industry analyst Sylwia Kechiche.
While speeds in SA had doubled over the past three years from a 15.11 Mbps median download speed in the first quarter of 2020 to 31.34 Mbps early this year, SA finished last among Brics countries.
“Using Speedtest Intelligence data, we compared fixed download speeds across the Brics countries, which include five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SA. China topped the rankings, posting a median download speed of nearly 160 Mbps. SA, meanwhile, finished last, indicating it still has room to grow in terms of fixed broadband performance and adoption,” said Kechiche.
Kechiche said fixed broadband adoption in SA is still relatively low.
“There are 17.4-million households in SA, and if we translate the overall number of broadband subscriptions into household adoption, this equates to just 10% of SA households having fixed broadband in September last year. On one hand, this marks an improvement over 2020, when less than one-tenth (8.3%) of households had access to fixed internet at home, according to the General Household Survey.
“But on the other hand, there was — and is — a significant urban/rural divide. Fourteen percent of households in metropolitan areas had access to the internet at home compared to only 0.8% of rural households according to the same survey.”
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If you want SA's fastest fixed broadband speed, move to Joburg, survey finds
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Johannesburg has the fastest fixed broadband speed in SA.
However, speeds in SA on the whole are the slowest among Brics countries.
The latest research by Ookla, a global leader in network intelligence and connectivity insights, found Johannesburg performed well compared with the other SA cities in terms of average download and upload speeds.
“Download speeds in Johannesburg ranged from 25.53 Mbps to 51.49 Mbps, while in Port Elizabeth speeds were much lower, ranging from 6.36 Mbps to 30.11 Mbps. Typically fibre networks first reach rich and affluent communities that present a fertile ground for their services. For example, a northern suburb of Johannesburg — Parkhurst — was Vumatel’s first suburb,” said Ookla principal industry analyst Sylwia Kechiche.
While speeds in SA had doubled over the past three years from a 15.11 Mbps median download speed in the first quarter of 2020 to 31.34 Mbps early this year, SA finished last among Brics countries.
“Using Speedtest Intelligence data, we compared fixed download speeds across the Brics countries, which include five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SA. China topped the rankings, posting a median download speed of nearly 160 Mbps. SA, meanwhile, finished last, indicating it still has room to grow in terms of fixed broadband performance and adoption,” said Kechiche.
Kechiche said fixed broadband adoption in SA is still relatively low.
“There are 17.4-million households in SA, and if we translate the overall number of broadband subscriptions into household adoption, this equates to just 10% of SA households having fixed broadband in September last year. On one hand, this marks an improvement over 2020, when less than one-tenth (8.3%) of households had access to fixed internet at home, according to the General Household Survey.
“But on the other hand, there was — and is — a significant urban/rural divide. Fourteen percent of households in metropolitan areas had access to the internet at home compared to only 0.8% of rural households according to the same survey.”
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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