When it comes to the fastest mobile network internet connections in Africa in comparison to the rest of the world, the continent is really lagging behind.
This is shown in a report of Global State of Mobile Networks from Open Signal after breaking down the performance of mobile networks in 87 countries all over the world, based on overall speeds.
The report shows that among the countries with the fastest mobile network internet connections in Africa, South Africa, which appears number 48 on the list, is tops.
What the report defines overall speed as is “the average mobile data connection a user experiences based on both the speeds and availability of a country’s 3G and 4G networks.”
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Among the 87 countries that appeared on the report, 7 are African countries. While South Africa tops the list for the continent, other countries are Ivory Coast, Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria respectively. It showed that while no country in the continent gives data speed of up to 10 Mbps, South Africa has reached 9.93 Mbps. Only Ghana and Nigeria are less than 5 Mbps.
East Asia and Northern Europe who have dominated the same report in the past, have are still dominant in the recent report which was released in February 2017. Countries like “Netherlands, Sweden, and Hungary join Asian powerhouses South Korea, Japan, and Australia in providing overall average speeds over 21 Mbps,” the report stated.
Globally, it is South Korea that tops as it delivers a typical mobile data download connection of 37.5 Mbps. Only four countries in the world, give data speed of up to 30 Mbps; South Korea, Norway, Hungary, and Singapore.
The report was compiled after a study between Nov 1st, 2016 and Jan 31st, 2017.
While the speed of mobile network internet connections in Africa is a thing of serious consideration, the affordability is another thing. According to various findings in 2016, the three countries in Africa with the most expensive mobile data are South Sudan (1GB mobile data at US$90.83), Swaziland ($30.33) and Zimbabwe ($30).
On the other hand, the countries with the cheapest data per GB are Tanzania (US$0.89), Egypt ($2.82) and Mozambique ($2.87). South Africa was placed at 5.26 US dollars, the same as Nigeria, while Ghana was Kenya was $5.0, and Malawi was $5.8.
Thanks to mobile service providers like Glo and Airtel, however, data prices are fast coming down in Nigeria.
While Nigeria neither has one of the fastest or cheapest mobile network internet connections in Africa, the country has one of the largest telecommunication industry in the continent, as the country has spent up to N3.66 trillion on telecommunications services between 2015 and 2016.
