Faith Nyasuguta
Africa has continued to lag behind when it comes to mobile internet speed, falling way behind other regions.
Despite this, the continent’s telecommunications industry has been experiencing a revolution as many nations eye 5G services and its internet speed promises.
While 5G is still yet to fully break into the African market, the 4th generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks 4G is still a very valid service depending on how well it is developed.
A network intelligence and connectivity web service, Ookla Insights, recently published an article that disclosed which Sub-Saharan Africa countries and which networks within the said regions recorded the most impressive internet speeds in Q2 of 2022.
The research paid attention to a few of Africa’s most prominent network providers, MTN, Vodaphone, Orange, Airtel, and Safaricom.
It went ahead to compare mobile performance on modern chipsets across ten countries including, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Cote D Ivoire, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Botswana.
The report revealed that median download speeds across these regions ranged anywhere from 2.89Mbps to 65.95Mbps, while median upload speeds were recorded anywhere from 1.55Mbps to 14.84Mbps.
Below are ten Sub-Saharan African countries that recorded the highest internet speed for the second quarter of 2022. The list is in order of highest to lowest.
South Africa: It’s no surprise that the Southernmost country of Africa is coming in at number 1, as it already has a standard 5G service. Vodaphone provided this country with the highest speed, reaching as high as 81.36Mbps.
Kenya: In this East African country, Safaricom enjoys the highest market share by a long shot at 67.1%, approximately 42.7 million connections. The next highest is Airtel at 25.9% (16.4 million). As for who performed better, Safaricom still takes the cake, with a median download speed of 36.25Mbps.
Botswana: It enjoys a fairly modest internet penetration, Botswana’s telecommunications market is still growing. However, the market is dominated by MTN and Orange, both of which have a 42.2% market share and a 41.2% market share respectively. When it comes to who provides a faster internet speed, Orange edges MTN slightly, recording an average download speed of up to 32.85Mbps.
Uganda: In Uganda, MTN’s 53.9% market share translates to 16.3 million subscribers as of Q2 2022, and alongside servicing the majority of the internet users in the country, the company also provided the highest median download speed at 32.71Mbps.
Nigeria: Standing as one of the nations with the highest internet penetration in Africa, Nigeria is home to numerous mobile service providers, and of all of them Airtel recorded the highest median download speed at 30.35Mbps.
DRC: With the 3rd largest population in Sub-Saharan Africa, DRC boasts a very attractive market for internet service providers. It plays host to 7 mobile operators, all of which are servicing its enormous population to varying degrees. Of the 7 telecommunications companies, Orange comes in at number one, providing a median download speed of 29.18Mbps.
Guinea: In Guinea, Orange accounted for 60% of mobile connections in Q2 2022, while MTN accounted for 30.8% of all mobile connections in the region, and as such Orange recorded an average of 24.75Mbps average download speed, coming in as the highest in the country.
Rwanda: MTN in Rwanda has been making big moves to dominate the market. It provided the best 4G service to further increase smartphone penetration within the East African nation and stimulate demand for data services. Its highest median download speed came in at 23.77Mbps, the highest in the country.
Côte d’Ivoire: In this West African country MTN took home the gold. The telecommunications company which had a 38.9% subscriber market, had a median download speed of 23.76Mbps.
Tanzania: Just like DRC, Tanzania is serviced by 7 telecommunications companies, and this makes for fierce competition. However, Vodaphone performed the best of all service providers at 17.08Mbps median download speed.
