Internet speed in Africa tells a story of dramatic contrasts. Some users stream 4K video on fibre connections. Others wait minutes for a single email to load. The gap between the best and worst service providers reflects infrastructure investment, policy choices, and economic realities.
As someone who tracks connectivity across emerging markets, I have analysed speed test data, regulatory filings, and user reports. The findings reveal clear winners and chronic underperformers. Understanding which providers lead and which lag helps consumers make informed choices. It also highlights where Africa’s digital economy faces its biggest hurdles.
The Speed Leaders: Who Delivers in Africa
Egypt: The Fixed Broadband Champion
Egypt stands as Africa’s undisputed fixed broadband leader. The country achieved median speeds of 80.3 Mbps by January 2025. This represents a remarkable climb from just 5.4 Mbps in December 2017. Egypt has held the title of fastest fixed internet in Africa for three consecutive years.
The state-owned Telecom Egypt drives much of this infrastructure. Combined with private providers like Orange Egypt and Vodafone Egypt, the market benefits from intense fibre deployment. The government is replacing copper cables with fibre optics in rural villages through the “Haya Karima” initiative. This project will connect 60 million people across 4,500 villages.
Egypt’s $3.5 billion investment in digital infrastructure shows in the results. The country ranks 162nd globally now. That is a massive improvement from previous years. For African standards, Egypt offers genuinely fast home and business internet.
South Africa: The Consistent Performer
South Africa leads Sub-Saharan Africa in overall connectivity. The country recorded average download speeds of 42.42 Mbps in 2024. It remains the benchmark for the region. South Africa is also one of only three Sub-Saharan nations in the global top 100 for mobile speeds.
Within South Africa, specific internet service providers distinguish themselves. Cool Ideas consistently tops speed rankings. In Q4 2021, it achieved a Speed Score of 54.46. It also leads in consistency, with 73% of tests showing at least 25 Mbps download speeds.
The provider focuses exclusively on fibre. It offers only unshaped and unthrottled plans. This approach eliminates the congestion issues that plague competitors. Afrihost and Webafrica follow closely. Afrihost scores 35.79 on speed tests. Webafrica reaches 34.21. Both providers invested heavily in fibre infrastructure. They also maintain low latency, with Webafrica achieving median latencies as low as 4ms.
Axxess wins on customer satisfaction rather than pure speed. It received a 79% satisfaction rating in 2021. Users praise its support quality and reliable service. Speed scores of 30.02 put it in the top tier anyway.
Côte d’Ivoire: The Rising Star
Côte d’Ivoire now ranks as the highest Sub-Saharan African country for fixed broadband. It reached 103rd globally with 58.17 Mbps median speeds in December 2025. Orange Côte d’Ivoire drives this performance. The company offers entry-level packages starting at 50 Mbps. This pushes the entire user base toward higher-speed connections.
The country’s fibre-to-the-premises coverage reaches 10% to 15% of premises. That is lower than in Senegal or Kenya. Yet the concentration on higher-tier plans improves median speeds significantly.
Rwanda and Mauritius: Small but Mighty
Rwanda averages 32.69 Mbps. Mauritius reaches 31.12 Mbps. These small nations punch above their weight. Rwanda’s government-led fibre rollout created a backbone that private providers leverage. Mauritius benefits from its island geography. Undersea cables land easily. Dense urban populations make infrastructure deployment cost-effective.
The Speed Laggards: Where Connectivity Fails
Equatorial Guinea: The Continental Bottom
Equatorial Guinea recorded just 2.7 Mbps average speeds in 2024. This makes it the slowest internet in Africa. The paradox is painful. The country possesses vast oil wealth. Yet its telecommunications infrastructure remains primitive. The government maintains a monopoly on internet provision. Competition is illegal. Investment is minimal.
Cameroon and Ethiopia: Chronic Underperformers
Cameroon averages 3.2 Mbps. Ethiopia manages 3.5 Mbps. Both countries have large populations and growing economies. Their internet infrastructure does not match their ambitions.
Ethiopia’s situation is particularly frustrating. The state-owned Ethio Telecom held a monopoly for decades. Speeds remained stagnant. A 2021 report placed Ethiopia at 222nd globally with 1.20 Mbps. The recent liberalisation allowing private operators may improve matters. But progress will take years.
Sudan and Central African Republic: Conflict and Neglect
Sudan recorded just 4.02 Mbps in 2024. The Central African Republic reached 4.08 Mbps. Conflict destroys infrastructure. Investment flees instability. These countries show how political chaos devastates digital connectivity.
Mauritania and Algeria: North African Laggards
Despite North Africa’s general progress, Mauritania and Algeria historically underperformed. Mauritania recorded 2.54 Mbps in 2021. Algeria managed 3.08 Mbps. Both ranked in the bottom 30 globally.
However, Algeria is improving rapidly. It jumped 28 places in 2025 to reach 109th globally. New fibre deployments and 5G launches are finally moving the needle. Mauritania also climbed 24 places after adding 5,500 kilometres of fibre backbone.
The Provider-Specific Problems
Rain (South Africa): The Satisfaction Disaster
Rain holds the unfortunate title of worst-rated major ISP in South Africa. Its customer satisfaction score hit just 56.7% in 2021. That is significantly below the 70% industry average. Users complain about poor network speeds, billing errors, and nonexistent customer support.
Rain’s technical performance also lags. Its Speed Score of 34.20 places it sixth out of nine major providers. Latency reaches 24ms, the worst among ranked ISPs. Consistency scores hit just 39.3%. Nearly two-thirds of users experience speeds below the 25 Mbps threshold. Rain built its business on affordable 5G home internet. The concept was innovative.
The execution failed. Network congestion during peak hours destroys user experience. The company acknowledges problems, but fixes remain slow.
Telkom (South Africa): The Legacy Struggle
Telkom is 39% state-owned. It operates across 38 African countries. Yet in its home market, it ranks poorly. Speed scores of 20.04 place it eighth out of nine providers. Consistency scores of 42.7% show unreliable service.
The company carries legacy infrastructure burdens. Copper DSL lines still serve many customers. Transitioning tofibrer is expensive and slow. Telkom’s bureaucracy moves more slowly than nimble competitors. It offers cheap packages starting at R449. But the value proposition weakens when speeds drop, and advertised rates are below.
Cell C (South Africa): The Declining Operator
Cell C’s customer satisfaction rating of 59.4% places it second-worst among major South African ISPs. The company has struggled financially for years. Network quality suffered during cost-cutting periods. Cell C now relies heavily on roaming agreements with MTN. This creates inconsistent user experiences depending on location.
9mobile (Nigeria): The Collapsing Challenger
Nigeria’s 9mobile demonstrates how quickly fortunes change. The provider peaked at 16.31% market share in 2016. By 2025, it collapsed to 1.29%. Its data subscriber base crashed 88% from its peak to under 2 million users.
9mobile inherited the infrastructure from the former Etisalat Nigeria. Debt burdens and management conflicts destroyed the brand. Speeds remain slow because the company cannot invest in network upgrades. Users fled to MTN and Airtel. 9mobile now survives as a cautionary tale.
Globacom (Nigeria): The Sudden Decline
Globacom was Nigeria’s second-largest operator. It peaked at 43.7 million data subscribers in 2023. By 2025, it plummeted to 15.8 million. Market share dropped from 29.27% to 11.16%.
The reasons are complex. Network quality degraded in key markets. Customer service failed to scale. Competitors MTN and Airtel invested more aggressively in 4G and 5G. Globacom’s decline shows that size does not protect against operational failures.
Regional Patterns: Why Some Areas Lag
North Africa: Recent Gains, Historical Gaps
North Africa was the world’s slowest region in 2021. Average speeds of 5.68 Mbps trailed even Sub-Saharan Africa’s 6.56 Mbps. Political instability in Libya and Algeria dragged down regional averages.
The turnaround since 2021 is dramatic. Egypt’s fibre push. Morocco’s 5G launch. Tunisia’s infrastructure investments. These countries now lead the continent. They prove that focused government policy and private competition drive progress.
Sub-Saharan Africa: The Urban-Rural Chasm
South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria appear in the global top 100 mobile rankings. Yet these represent urban concentrations. Rural areas in the same countries often lack basic 3G coverage.
The urbanisation paradox is clear. Dense cities enable cost-effective infrastructure. Sparse rural populations cannot justify investment. This creates two Africas. One with fibre and 5G. Another with nothing.
Landlocked Countries: The Geography Penalty
Rwanda and Botswana perform well despite being landlocked. But Chad, the Central African Republic, and Mali struggle. Without coastal landing points for undersea cables, they rely on expensive cross-border fibre. Transit costs raise prices. Speeds suffer.
What Drives Provider Performance
Infrastructure Investment
Fast providers build fibre. Slow providers cling to wireless or copper. Cool Ideas in South Africa succeeds because it is fibre-only. Rain struggles because it relies on contested 5G spectrum shared with mobile users.
Competition Policy
Markets with multiple strong providers perform better. South Africa has over ten significant ISPs. Egypt balances state and private operators. Monopolies like Ethio Telecom in Ethiopia or state-controlled markets like Equatorial Guinea produce stagnation.
Regulatory Environment
Spectrum allocation matters. 5G launches in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, boosting speeds immediately. Countries that delay spectrum auctions fall behind. South Africa’s spectrum release in 2022 enabled mobile speed improvements.
Data localisation laws can help or hurt. Egypt’s infrastructure investments worked because they focused on actual fibre deployment. Not just legal requirements.
Economic Fundamentals
Wealthy users buy faster plans. This pushes median speeds up. Côte d’Ivoire’s strategy of starting packages at 50 Mbps works because the urban middle class can afford them. In poorer markets, users buy the cheapest options. These are inevitably slow.
The Consumer Impact
Slow internet costs more than frustration. It limits education access. It prevents remote work. It stifles e-commerce. African businesses on slow connections cannot compete globally.
The speed gap also widens inequality. Urban elites with fibre access have global opportunities. Rural populations remain disconnected. The divide is not just between countries. It is within them. Choosing the right provider matters enormously. In South Africa, selecting Cool Ideas over Rain means 20 Mbps more speed and reliable service. In Nigeria, choosing MTN over 9mobile ensures actual connectivity versus dropped signals.
Future Outlook
The gap between Africa’s fastest and slowest providers will persist. Egypt and South Africa will continue improving. They have momentum, investment, and competitive markets.
The laggards face harder paths. Conflict zones need stability before fibre. Monopoly markets need political will for reform. Landlocked countries need regional cooperation on transit infrastructure.
Yet positive signs exist. Algeria’s 28-place jump in 2025. Mauritania’s fibre expansion. Even Ethiopia’s market opening. Change is possible where commitment exists.
Conclusion
Africa’s internet landscape is not uniformly slow. It is bifurcated. Egypt’s Telecom Egypt and South Africa’s Cool Ideas deliver genuine broadband. Equatorial Guinea’s state monopoly and South Africa’s Rain fail their users.
The difference is not in technology availability.
It is choices. Policy choices. Investment choices. Competitive choices. Providers that prioritise infrastructure over marketing win. Those who cut costs or maintain monopolies lose.
For African consumers, the message is clear. Research your provider’s actual speeds, not advertised claims. Where competition exists, use it. Switch from underperformers to champions. The speed difference is not marginal. It is transformational.
