P3 Communications names MTN as the best network in South Africa
According to new research from German communications consultancy P3 Communications, South African mobile service provider MTN is currently the best mobile network in the country. Results are based on drive tests conducted earlier this year using Samsung Galaxy S8 smart mobile devices.
This is the second year in a row that P3 has bestowed the title of best network on MTN, ahead of its primary competitors: Vodacom, Telkom and Cell C. The results are in contradiction with the overall popularity levels of these networks, given that MTN emerged last amongst these networks in terms of popularity.
The popularity was measured by the South African consumer satisfaction index. P3’s analysis is based on a highly comprehensive set of tests, which include over 5,000 tests in the voice domain and nearly 5,000 in the domain of data connectivity for each services provider in South Africa.
Half of these test were conducted in cities, where the largest concentration of mobile users can be found, while 10% of the tests were conducted in towns and 40% on roads across the country. The tests were conducted on a Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone.
In order to test the data connectivity, P3 examined speeds of respective networks for downloading and uploading, as well as load time within web browsers and the buffering speed on streaming sites such as Youtube. The tests were conducted between January and February this year.
Before that, the firm collected data on the varying performances from users across the country using surveys conducted since November last year. MTN’s numbers were the highest amongst all operators by some distance, in the voice, data and crowdsourced performance domain.
The research from the consulting firm reflect similar results produced by MyBroadband – a South African technology magazine – in a similar study. While MyBroadband’s analysis is limited only to the data domain, it ensures validity by conducting tests for each network on a number of different top smartphone brands.
