Fastest 5G networks in South Africa’s largest malls

MyBroadband tested Vodacom, MTN and Telkom’s 5G network performance in Gauteng’s biggest malls with interesting results.

For this test, MyBroadband visited all the large shopping malls in Gauteng on 19 and 20 February 2025 with a test bench full of Samsung A34 5G smartphones.

These devices were allowed to connect to the best technology available, which creates an accurate picture of the speeds the average consumer should be able to get where 5G is available.

Each phone in the test bench performed a speed test every minute using a custom version of the popular MyBroadband Speed Test App.

This also allows us to determine the 5G coverage inside each mall for each operator, as tests completed on 4G indicate a lack of coverage.

MyBroadband’s speed test servers are hosted in Teraco’s vendor-neutral data centres to ensure a neutral testing environment.

NAPAfrica provides all network operators at its peering points a free 10Gbps connection to the MyBroadband Speed Test platform.

This ensures a fair test platform that delivers real-world performance results on all networks.

This extensive testing enabled MyBroadband to get a clear view of the coverage and network performance inside the shopping malls.

MTN and Vodacom traded blows throughout the malls, while we were unable to complete a single 5G test on the Telkom network, a disappointing decrease in performance from our previous testing.

Vodacom recorded the best average speed in Fourways Mall, Rosebank Mall and Sandton City, but MTN had better coverage in all the malls except Sandton City.

Menlyn

MTN had a clear lead inside Menlyn Mall, with slightly better coverage, and the fastest average speed of 193Mbps compared to Vodacom’s 67Mbps.

Mall of Africa

Mall of Africa had a surprising lack of 5G coverage, with only MTN completing some 5G tests.

These were few and far between, but still averaged a respectable 173Mbps.

Fourways Mall

The results inside Fourways Mall were more competitive, with Vodacom achieving a significantly faster average download speed of 294Mbps compared to MTN’s 219Mbps.

MTN did have much better coverage to make up for the lack of speed.

Centurion Mall

MTN performed great inside Centurion Mall, with coverage throughout and a decent average speed of 249Mbps.

Vodacom only managed to complete one test on 5G during our test of the mall, and that test struggled to upload. It did manage a good download speed.

Rosebank Mall

Vodacom had the better average speed of 231Mbps inside Rosebank Mall, but only had a third of MTN’s coverage.

Sandton City

Vodacom really shined inside Sandton City, offering better 5G coverage and speed compared to MTN.