Huawei Leads 5G Speeds On Two Networks In South Africa
Huawei wireless equipment offers the fastest download speeds of any service provider on two of the three 5G mobile networks in South Africa.
This is based on 86,836 speed tests conducted since early 2023 using the MyBroadband Speed Test Android app.
Huawei's dominance of South Africa's network infrastructure reflects its overall performance in the industry.
Although the Chinese tech giant has lost market share in Western countries in recent years, it operates the largest number of base stations in the world.
According to TrendForce , Huawei will account for around 29% of BTS in 2022, followed by Ericsson with 24%.
In its home market, the company supplies 59% of mobile phone towers, almost double that of the second largest player, ZTE.
It is also one of the top five global players in 5G networks.
Peng Song, Huawei's president of ICT strategy and marketing , recently claimed that 5G will play an important role in increasing mobile network revenue.
The three mobile networks that offer 5G cellular connectivity in South Africa (Vodacom, MTN and Telkom) use Huawei equipment in some of their towers.
Rain also deploys corporate devices on a fixed 5G network, but requires customers to use their routers in one location.
Although Rain recently launched a nationwide mobile network with support for calls and text messages, mobile data coverage is currently limited to 4G.
Speed tests conducted since early 2023 showed that Huawei Telekom devices have the best average download speed in South Africa at 316.78 Mbps.
However, since Telekom's 5G network is only a few months old, the data available to Analytico can only come from 46 individual devices, some of which are likely Telekom-optimized test devices.
Vodacom and MTN's 5G networks have tens of thousands of tests combined, suggesting that even more regular users are trying them out.
Huawei Vodacom devices achieved an average download speed of 247.43 Mbps year on year.
The first figure is about 59% faster than the average download speed of 155.66 Mbps achieved in the first nine months of 2022.
Huawei also noted better download speeds and average latency than another Vodacom 5G network provider, Nokia.
The average download speed of 37.59 Mbps is also about 26% faster than the 29.87 Mbps measured in 2022.
The situation is quite different on the MTN network, where Huawei performs the worst of the three providers in terms of download speeds.
Its average speed of 173.21 Mbps easily beats ZTE (190.70 Mbps) and Ericsson (200.25 Mbps).
However, Huawei devices recorded the best average download speed on the MTN network at 42.38 Mbps compared to ZTE's 31.11 Mbps and Ericsson's 30.35 Mbps.
Overall, MTN's 5G network performance has dropped significantly compared to Analytico's previous analysis in October 2022.
In this case, the average download speed of all three providers exceeded that of Vodacom's two providers.
The latest results show a total change in favor of Vodacom.
One contributing factor was MTN's increased investment in standby power, which diverted some capital investment away from 5G rollout.
MyBroadband also understands that during peak consumption periods, MTN has to turn off some 5G radios to save battery power.
The table below compares the speed of 5G network equipment providers in South Africa.
| 5G speed in South Africa - by provider and network | ||||
| seller | only | Download speed | Download speed | delay |
| huawei | telecommunications | 316.78Mbps | 36.85Mbps | 20.72ms |
| huawei | vodak | 247.43Mbps | 37.59Mbps | 21.46ms |
| nokia | vodak | 210.81Mbps | 22.58Mbps | 25.31ms |
| ericsson | MTS | 200.25Mbps | 30.35Mbps | 29.16ms |
| ZTE | MTS | 190.70Mbps | 31.11Mbps | 22.5ms |
| huawei | MTS | 173.32Mbps | 42.38Mbps | 33.33ms |
