MTN Rated South Africa’s Best Network by Independent Global Benchmarking Organisation umlaut
MTN Rated South Africa’s Best Network by Independent Global Benchmarking Organisation umlaut. Following a rigorous and robust testing process covering more than 644 984 km2 of the country based on crowdsourced data and additional drive test measurements over a distance of 8582km, umlaut, an independent global benchmarking organisation, has granted MTN its “Best In Test” certification cementing MTN’s position as South Africa’s best network.
Running these benchmarks across the world, umlaut, analysed South Africa’s mobile networks with regards to mobile network performance; measuring smartphone, voice, and data performance based on extensive drive-tests from major metropolitan areas to smaller cities and connection roads.
Umlaut evaluates more than 200 mobile networks in more than 120 countries, as the de-facto industry standard, its benchmarking methodology focuses on customer-experienced network quality and covers a wide range of mobile services. Done between September and October of 2024 in metropolitan and rural areas across South Africa, umlaut tested and measured the performance of South African network operators’ voice and data services on smartphones, with MTN coming out tops across all benchmarks.
Dedicated measurements were executed as drive tests outdoors using a Samsung Galaxy S23+. All data measurements were performed in 5G-preferred mode with voice measurements also done in 5G-to-5G-preferred mode on both sides, while call origin was alternated.In addition to physical drive testing within the network, the evaluation criteria for benchmarking the “Best in Crowd-Sourced Quality” certification also included crowdsourced data gathered from thousands of devices from April to September 2024.
“The recognition of the quality and reliability of the MTN network by umlaut, the global standard in benchmarking network quality, is testament to the investment that MTN South Africa has put into leading the charge in bringing modern, connected living to every South African not just this year, but these past 30 years. In 2023 alone MTN invested over R10.1bn towards network and IT infrastructure and an additional R9.7bn in 2024,” says Rami Farah, MTN SA’s Executive for Network.
“In addition to the overall ‘Best In Test’ certification, MTN SA also won all sub-categories being ‘Best In Data,’ ‘Best In Voice,’ “Best in Crowd-Sourced Quality,’ and ‘Best in Reliability’ according to umlaut truly making us the winning network for a winning nation,” Farah adds.
Explaining the methodology utilised in determining these awards umlaut explains that it allows for a technical analysis that is unprecedented in its level of detail and enables comparisons between the network performance and capability of each mobile network with the public benchmarks and certificate benchmarks helping networks to demonstrate how well they are delivering wireless connections to consumers, business users, and enterprises revealing the areas of improvement.
Drilling down on the improvements achieved by the MTN network, Farah adds that, “At the core of MTN’s network advancements lies the expansion of our 5G network, which now covers 44% of South Africa, an increase from 35% at the start of the year.”
In line with its Summer 2024 theme of a “winning summer for a winning nation,” in addition to the certifications received from umlaut, having received the title in quarters one and two, MTN has also been recognised as the best overall network in South Africa for the 3rd quarter of 2024 by MyBroadband’s Mobile Network Quality Report which found that MTN dominated the overall network rankings in most major metropolitan areas.
“Invaluable to us receiving these accolades is the work our network teams do to constantly maintain, optimise and upgrade our infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of our customers, ensuring that as we have been for the past 30 years, the more we win, the more they win,” Farah concludes.
