We compared MTN and Vodacom’s 5G speeds — with impressive results

MTN and Vodacom’s 5G networks can both reach speeds above 500 Mbps in Waterkloof, Randburg and Sandton, MyBroadband testing has found.

For this testing, MyBroadband used three test benches consisting of five Samsung Galaxy S21 5G devices, five Huawei P40 Lite 5G devices, and five OPPO Reno 5 5G devices.

We installed a custom version of the popular MyBroadband speed test app on these smartphones, testing the download speed and upload speed on the respective networks.

South Africa only has two mobile network operators that provide mobile 5G services — MTN and Vodacom.

The results of the tests on these two 5G networks are documented below.

---

Waterkloof

MTN was dominant in the Waterkloof region, recording an average 5G download speed of over twice that of Vodacom.

MTN achieved an average 5G download speed of 326.62 Mbps compared to Vodacom’s 129.24 Mbps, while MTN and Vodacom’s average 5G upload speeds were 74.01 Mbps and 22.05 Mbps, respectively.

MTN also beat Vodacom in both maximum download and upload speeds and recorded a higher ratio of 5G tests to all tests, compared to Vodacom.

---

Randburg and Sandton

In Randburg and Sandton, the average 5G download and upload speeds of MTN were far higher than those of Vodacom.

MTN achieved an average 5G download speed of 308.08 Mbps compared to Vodacom’s 210.91Mbps, while MTN and Vodacom’s average 5G upload speeds were 73.13 Mbps and 32.18 Mbps, respectively.

The majority of the tests conducted on the MTN SIM cards used MTN’s 5G network rather than its 4G network, which indicates how much 5G coverage the mobile operator has in this region.

In contrast, only a quarter of all Vodacom tests took place on its 5G network.

This is significant as it indicates MTN has more extensive 5G coverage than Vodacom in this location.

Vodacom and MTN were almost equal when comparing the highest maximum download speed in this Randburg, with Vodacom slightly leading.