Overall, the report underscores intensifying competition among South Africa’s mobile operators, with MTN leading on overall and 5G experience, Vodacom excelling in speed and coverage, and Telkom standing out for signal availability, as operators continue to expand and modernize networks to meet rising data demand.
Opensignal has released its South Africa Mobile Network Experience Report for August 2025 , analyzing real-world user connectivity between May 1 and July 29, 2025. The report assesses the performance of the country’s five main operators — MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, Cell C and Rain — across overall experience, 5G performance, coverage, availability and consistency.
MTN dominated the leaderboard, securing 11 out of 15 possible awards, including seven outright wins and four shared victories. The operator swept all Overall Experience awards and claimed four of the five 5G Experience awards. MTN also won the 5G Availability award outright and shared the Reliability Experience award, reinforcing its strong position in both general and next-generation network performance.
Vodacom followed with five awards, standing out in 5G performance and coverage. It won the 5G Download Speed Experience award nationally and achieved the highest 5G download speeds across all nine regions of South Africa. Vodacom posted a nationwide 5G speed lead of more than 60 Mbps over MTN. The operator also retained both Coverage awards, scoring 8.0 out of 10 for Coverage Experience and improving its 5G Coverage Experience score to 2.0 from 1.7 in the previous report.
Telkom distinguished itself in network availability, winning the Availability award outright. Its users spent 99.1% of the time connected to a 3G, 4G or 5G signal, maintaining the same achievement as in last year’s report. Telkom also shared the Video Experience award with Cell C and MTN.
In the Video Experience category, Telkom, Cell C and MTN were statistically tied, scoring between 63.3 and 65.6 points on a 100-point scale, placing them in the “Good” category. This rating indicates users are generally able to stream video at 720p or higher with satisfactory loading times and minimal stalling. Vodacom and Rain followed closely, also earning “Good” ratings. Notably, Telkom’s video score improved by 10 points year-on-year, while Vodacom rose by six points and MTN by four.
The report highlights South Africa as one of Africa’s most advanced mobile markets, with high penetration rates and continued subscription growth, according to GSMA Intelligence. However, operators face ongoing challenges, including infrastructure theft, vandalism and persistent load shedding, all of which increase operational costs and affect network reliability. To counter these pressures, operators are investing heavily in resilience measures and backup power solutions.
Mobile broadband demand continues to surge as more South Africans rely on mobile internet for daily activities. MTN reported a 23% increase in mobile data traffic between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2025. Vodacom recorded a 36.4% rise in data traffic in its 2025 financial year, while Telkom saw mobile broadband usage grow by 24.1%. These trends are driving continued investment in 4G, 5G and backhaul infrastructure.
5G deployment remains concentrated in major cities and economic hubs. MTN operates more than 4,000 5G sites, covering 44% of the population and targeting 60% coverage by the end of 2025, while Vodacom runs over 3,000 5G sites nationwide. Despite infrastructure expansion, adoption remains modest — only 6% of MTN users and 14% of Telkom devices are 5G-enabled. Meanwhile, 2G and 3G networks are expected to be phased out by 2027, with mobile users projected to reach 50 million by 2029. Cell C customers currently access 5G services through a roaming agreement with Vodacom.
Overall, the report underscores intensifying competition among South Africa’s mobile operators, with MTN leading on overall and 5G experience, Vodacom excelling in speed and coverage, and Telkom standing out for signal availability, as operators continue to expand and modernize networks to meet rising data demand.
“It’s my pleasure to kick-off our trophy presentations at hashtag#MWC26 with your team. The success of the MTN Group for Overall Experience and 5G Experience awards are building something special.”
– Charles Rutstein, CEO, Opensignal
