Ookla has released the latest Speedtest Intelligence data to explore mobile performance in select countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. From the data, Safaricom has performed well as it has the third fastest internet speeds in Africa. The first two are MTN South Africa and Vodacom South Africa.
From the data shared by Ookla, Safaricom’s average download speed is 36.25 Mbps while the average upload speed stands at 13.83 Mbps. MTN South Africa’s average download speed is 65.95 Mbps while Vodacom South Africa’s download speed averages at 48.71 Mbps. As for upload speeds, the top two telcos recorded 12.65 and 7.36 Mbps for MTN and Vodacom respectively.
According to Ookla, the fastest download speeds in South Africa are a result of 5G connectivity that is yet to see wide scale roll out in Kenya. The report stated, “ If we take 5G out of the equation, Safaricom Kenya was the fastest operator among the analyzed operators.”
Even though Safaricom does not have the highest download speeds, it does have very good upload speeds compared to the top two.
Airtel Kenya came in at number 9 in Africa with average download speeds of 28.58 Mbps and upload speeds of 8.44 Mbps. Telkom Kenya did not make it to the top 20 fastest telcos in Africa and that was expected as in a previous report by Ookla, Telkom Kenya has the slowest data speeds in the country.
Safaricom is way ahead of Airtel
Safaricom is the largest operator in Kenya by a mile, with 67.1% market share (equivalent to 42.7 million connections) ahead of Airtel 25.9% (16.4 million).
Safaricom has better performance during Q2 2022, with a median download speed of 36.25 Mbps and upload of 13.83 Mbps, compared to Airtel (28.58 Mbps download speed and 8.44 Mbps upload).