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The worst time to download in SA is between 19:00 and 21:00

The mobile analytics firm Opensignal has shared some rather interesting information about the connectivity solutions South Africans use.

The report touches on the differences between cellular networks and WiFi as relates to internet connectivity.

Smartphone users in South Africa enjoy an average download speed of 14.8Mbps when using a cellular network including 3G and 4G. When accessing the internet while connected to WiFi however, download speeds dip to an average of 8.8Mbps.

“Price is still one of the key concerns for South Africa’s smartphone users when they consume mobile data. Many users prefer to access online content over Wifi – when they can find an available connection – in order to preserve their mobile data allowances,” Opensignal reports.

So for that reason Opensignal has observed South Africans opting to consume content via WiFi two out of five times.

The fact that data is so prohibitively expensive might also rather sad considering how widespread 4G is becoming.

Opensignal reports that 4G availability in South Africa increased from 69.9 percent in Q1 2018 to 75.9 percent in Q1 2019.

The firm adds that 4G speeds are – on average – 12.2Mbps faster than average WiFi speeds.

Opensignal also took a look at when South Africans experience the best speeds on cellular networks and WiFi.

The worst time to access the internet is between 7pm and 9pm where speeds dip to 12.4Mbps on cellular and 7.1Mbps on WiFi. The best time to run your downloads is between 3am and 5am.

“When speeds were fastest – between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. – users faced a similar difference across the two technologies with our measurements across 3G and 4G reaching 17 Mbps, while speeds over Wifi peaked at 10.8 Mbps,” says Openserve.

As much as we love faster internet, the fact of the matter is that even if mobile data was 50 times faster than our WiFi we wouldn’t use it based purely on the exorbitant cost of data in South Africa.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

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