Mobile network battle in Rustenburg and Brits

3 years ago 2

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MyBroadband’s mobile voice network quality testing revealed that MTN has the best voice network Brits, Vodacom in Rustenburg, and Telkom in the Hartbeespoort area. Vodacom came stone last in Hartbeespoort — behind Cell C.

These results form part of an extensive network quality testing project to determine the performance of Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, and Telkom’s mobile networks across South Africa.

MyBroadband has partnered with Analytico, Afristay, and Keysight distributor Coral-i for the extensive, country-wide project.

This project uses Keysight’s network testing platform, Nemo, to test a range of variables using high-end Samsung devices.

MyBroadband uses the globally recognised European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) recommendations to process and weigh the results to determine an overall score for each mobile operator in an area.

Testing was done along routes in the northern parts of the North West province, including Rustenburg, Brits, and Hartbeespoort.

Rustenburg results

Vodacom took a clear lead in Rustenburg, where they have the fastest call setup times, managed to connect all the calls, and never dropped a call.

MTN and Cell C had the best audio quality on their calls, but MTN dropped some calls, while Cell C had a very lengthy setup time due to not having VoLTE capabilities.

Telkom failed to set up a handful of calls but performed slightly better than MTN overall due to a few dropped calls on the yellow network.

Rustenburg voice network quality results
Network	Vodacom	Telkom	MTN	Cell C
Average Call Setup Time	0.99s	3.81s	1.80s	7.71s
Call Attempt Failure rate	0.00%	2.90%	0.00%	0.00%
Call Drop Rate	0.00%	0.00%	1.45%	0.00%
Average Voice Quality (MOS)	3.65	3.43	4.24	4.11
Overall Score	93.5%	87.8%	86.2%	86.0%

Brits results

MTN, Vodacom and Telkom performed well in Brits without any problems related to connecting or dropping calls.

MTN’s audio quality gave them the win in Brits, even though Vodacom was slightly faster in setting up calls.

Brits voice network quality results
Network	MTN	Vodacom	Telkom	Cell C
Average Call Setup Time	1.57s	1.25s	3.67s	10.46s
Call Attempt Failure rate	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	7.14%
Call Drop Rate	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
Average Voice Quality (MOS)	4.32	3.57	3.50	4.12
Overall Score	96.5%	93.5%	91.9%	67.0%

Hartbeespoort results

The Hartbeespoort area gave us some interesting results, with Vodacom taking a big hit.

The area has many hills and is not densely populated, so it is tough for a network to provide consistent coverage.

Telkom took the lead with no call setup failures and only dropped 2% of their calls.

MTN dropped just over 4% of calls, while Cell C failed to connect 4% and dropped 4%.

Vodacom doubled these failures, failing to connect over 8% of their calls and dropping another 8%.

When call failures make up such large percentages, the audio quality and setup time becomes less of an issue, and consistently connecting and keeping calls are the most important.

Hartbeespoort voice network quality results
Network	Telkom	MTN	Cell C	Vodacom
Average Call Setup Time	3.92s	1.38s	7.64s	2.76s
Call Attempt Failure rate	0.00%	0.00%	4.17%	8.16%
Call Drop Rate	2.13%	4.17%	4.35%	8.89%
Average Voice Quality (MOS)	3.59	4.26	4.12	3.34
Overall Score	84.4%	81.0%	57.9%	38.2%

Where I stayed

MyBroadband partnered with Afristay for this project, and their excellent service means we stayed in comfort during our trip to Rustenburg.

Palm Lodge in Rustenburg provided a comfortable night’s stay and an excellent breakfast in the morning. It is centrally located in Rustenburg and has many available rooms and enough secure parking for all its guests.

It also has a licenced bar and a nice restaurant, with a communal pool area where guests can relax.