Speedtest Global Index, a US-based internet analytics company, has shown in its data that Johannesburg and Pretoria, two South African cities, are leading as the top ten African cities with high average mobile download speed in Q1 2021. The city’s mobile speed, respectively, was 55.64Mbps and 44.94Mbps.
Speedtest company delivers data for mobile and fixed broadband internet in over 130 countries across the globe. The best average speed for mobile internet in Africa was South Africa with 44.80Mbps, while Ghana had the best-fixed broadband with 51.93Mbps. Based on the report, the global download speed average is 53.38Mbps for mobile and 102.12Mbps for fixed broadband. However, the top player’s rank fell short of these marks.
The top ten African countries for mobile internet speed are South Africa, Mali, Morocco, Cameroun, Tunisia, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Kenya, at 20.98 Mbps. Sudan is the worst-ranked African country with 12.21 Mbps ranking 131 positions out of 134 overall.
In the top ten for fixed broadband, the countries include Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Madagascar, Egypt, Senegal, Seychelles, Morocco, Congo, and Burkina Faso at 23.81 Mbps. Guinea is the worst-ranked African country with 6.66 Mbps, taking the 173rd position out of 176 overall.
The test also revealed that Airtel had Nigeria’s fastest Mobile Speed Score at 27.18 and best Mobile Consistency Score at 84.7%. Port Harcourt is the state in Nigeria with the fastest mean mobile download speed at 23.02 Mbps. ipNX was the fastest fixed broadband provider with an 18.00 Speed Score. ipNX also emerged as the best-fixed broadband Consistency Score at 36.2%.
The number has revealed Africa’s huge gap in internet speeds from the rest of the world. The numbers are relatively low as compared with global averages. Although Africa is experiencing rapid growth in the mobile telecom market, internet penetration is just a meager 42%.