New Opensignal Report Highlights Africa’s Digital Divide in Mobile Network Quality
Open Signal’s report highlights vast differences in mobile experience across Africa, with South Africa leading in speed and many countries facing consistent quality and signal challenges.
The mobile network experience across Africa varies widely, shaped by differences in macroeconomic conditions, investment, regulatory frameworks and infrastructure across the continent reported in Opensignal’s “The state of mobile network experience in Africa” report . Opensignal’s analysis of 27 African markets shows how each nation compares to its peers, using key measures, such as Download Speed Experience — the overall average download speeds seen by our users — and Consistent Quality (CQ). A deeper look at users’ time on different network technologies highlights some of the underlying reasons for network experience disparities, including the persistence of older technologies.
Some of the key insights include:
- South Africa stands out in download speed: Smartphone users in South Africa observe the fastest Download Speed Experience on the continent at 34.5Mbps — about 50% faster than second-placed Zimbabwe and over four times faster than last-placed Angola.
- There are notable disparities in Consistent Quality: While South Africa and Tunisia perform relatively well, around 60% of analyzed African countries score below 30% in CQ, highlighting connectivity struggles to maintain the stable performance needed for even basic digital services in many African countries.
- Reliance on 2G and 3G limits users’ experience: Across all compared markets, our users spend 8.3% to 38.5% of their time on 3G and 2G networks, with 63% of the markets spending over 20% of the time on older technologies that restrict both the Download Speed Experience and CQ.
- Time with No Signal (%) remains a challenge: In Tunisia, users spend the highest proportion of their time without a signal, highlighting significant gaps in service and infrastructure. South Africa is at the other end of the table, observing minimal time without a signal.
The analysis shows that smartphone users see a diverse mobile experience across Africa. Starting with average download speeds, South Africa sets the bar among compared African markets at 34.5Mbps — 50% faster than second placed Zimbabwe’s 22.9Mbps, followed by Morocco, Kenya, Tunisia and Madagascar — the only other markets to score above 20Mbps. The download speeds observed in South Africa are at least two times faster than in 20 out of 27 analyzed markets and 4.4 times faster than last placed Angola.
