MyBroadband Insights recently named MTN the best mobile network in South Africa in its latest Mobile Network Quality Report.
MTN has outperformed Vodacom in overall mobile data network quality in South Africa for several years, despite its smaller subscriber market share.
For its Q1 2024 report, MyBroadband Insights used data from 285,839 speed tests performed by 7,197 mobile data users across South Africa between 1 January 2024 and 31 March 2024.
Testing included dedicated drive tests and crowdsourced data to help ensure a balanced and accurate representation of real-world network performance.
MTN had the highest average download speed at 82.48 Mbps, followed by Vodacom at 77.45 Mbps, Cell C at 39.32 Mbps, and Telkom at 30.49 Mbps.
The report also calculates a Network Quality Score using download speed, upload speed, and latency.
These performance metrics are normalised across operators to give a score out of ten that shows how they perform relative to one another.
Following the release of the report, MTN South Africa CEO Charles Molapisi commended the team for their achievement on LinkedIn.
These executives and some of their senior managers responsible for the teams who help ensure MTN’s network performs well are:
- Rami Farah — Executive: Chief Technology Officer
- Zoltan Miklos — GM: Access Planning and Architecture
- Ernest Paul — GM: Governance, Quality and Service Creation
- Farhad Essop — GM: Network Operations
- Richard Nunes — GM: Network Implementation
- Calvin Govender — GM: Enterprise Connectivity
- Meeshaal Maharaj — GM: Core Network Design and Planning
- Thokozani Malinga — SM: Radio Network Planning
- Solomzi Mnyaka — SM: Transmission Planning
- Gustav Hoffmann — SM: Radio Quality Network Planning and Optimisation
- Ronnie Kritzinger — SM: Network Technology
In addition to these executives and senior managers, regional managers who look after specific parts of MTN’s network also oversee teams that ensure it performs well.
Miklos began his career as a Telkom engineer in 1997 while completing his Masters in telecommunications engineering from Wits.
He joined Vodacom in 2007 for a short 17-month stint before returning to Telkom as a senior manager to help build its to-be-launched mobile network 8ta.
Miklos quickly rose to executive level, leading 8ta’s mobile data network team and ultimately becoming executive for network architecture and planning.
He joined MTN SA in July 2017 as general manager for network and planning.
Farah has been with the MTN Group since 2001, serving as CTO in multiple regions, including MTN Liberia, MTN Rwanda, MTN Uganda, and MTN Iran.
He joined MTN South Africa as CTO on 1 January 2023.
Nunes has spent his 23-year career at MTN South Africa, beginning as a transmission planning specialist in 2001 — a role he held for eight years.
Essop joined MTN in 2018 after eight years as a customer services executive at Telkom. Before that, he was at Vodacom, where he began his career in 1998 as an IT specialist.
Paul has been at MTN for over 17 years. He was senior manager for network technology between 2007 and 2008 before moving to MTN Zambia, where he became CTO. He joined MTN SA in September 2021.
Govender has served more than half his 27-year career at MTN South Africa, beginning as a senior manager in the transmission planning and optimisation division in March 2010. He held this role for seven years.
He also began his career at Telkom as a network specialist. After seven years, he moved to Ericsson, where he stayed for four years before joining MTN.
Maharaj has been at MTN for 23 years. He started as an engineer in 2001 and became manager for carrier services in 2012.
Malinga began his career as a wireless transmission planner and engineer at Huawei in 2010. He joined MTN SA as an RF planning and optimisation engineer in 2014. He holds a Masters in telecommunications and information engineering from Wits.
Mnyaka has been at MTN since 2018, following a 15-year stint in Vodacom’s transmission infrastructure planning division. Before that, he spent 3.5 years as a support technician at Alcatel Lucent in the Western Cape after completing his internship at Transnet Rail Engineering.
Kritzinger has been at MTN SA for ten years, beginning as a radio quality specialist in 2015. He holds a D.Eng and conducted research into optical communications at UJ and the CSIR.
Hoffman has been at MTN since November 2019.
“Keeping the connected, connected”
South Africa’s mobile operators have faced tremendous challenges in maintaining the quality of their networks.
In addition to load-shedding causing coverage and capacity problems, criminals have targeted cellular towers to steal backup batteries and other equipment.
MTN spends around R10 billion per year on its mobile network in South Africa.
Like its rivals, it has had to be selective about where it spends its capex to ensure it gets the best performance for every rand invested.
A substantial portion goes towards network resilience, such as installing batteries and generators at sites to ensure customers have signal even during stage 6 load-shedding.
MTN also spends large sums on replacing stolen and vandalised equipment every year.
This is capital not spent on expanding its coverage, improving network capacity, or rolling out new technologies like 5G.
As a result, MTN has dialled back its rollout of 5G to focus on “keeping the connected connected”.
While it is still deploying new 5G sites, its rollout is no longer as aggressive as a few years ago.
This strategy has allowed MTN to maintain its crown as South Africa’s best mobile network, while launching products like Superflex that offer subscribers uncapped voice minutes with a large allotment of data.
“At MTN SA, the investment towards our network has been executed strategically to ensure that we maximise the best network output and achieve best network quality,” Miklos said.
“Our focus, for the past year, has been the modernisation and upgrading of our radio access network, mobile core network modernisation, transmission systems upgrades, and network resilience programme.
“All these upgrades and modernizations are closely monitored by our teams and our network partners across the regions and head office to ensure an end-to-end network focus with all domains in the value chain.”
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