It’s not every day when you get to see how various telecommunication operators perform in terms of internet speeds both for mobile data and home fibre. A report by web analysis firm Ookla now shows that Safaricom had the fastest Speed Score among mobile providers in Kenya during Q1 2021. This is as Faiba took over when it comes to fixed broadband during the same period.

Mobile Data

Safaricom registered a speed score of 29.80 as well as the top mobile Consistency Score at 86.3%. This is alongside having the highest 4G availability across the country at 88.1%. This does attest to the wide coverage that the firm is famous for and why it still continues to dominate the telco industry.

In terms of regions, Mombasa recorded the fasts mean mobile download speed at 27.79 Mbps. On the other hand, Nairobi had the fastest broadband with a download speed of 22.65 Mbps. It is safe to say that the major cities in the country registered the best speeds as Nakuru took third place. This was followed by Kisumu then Eldoret.

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Fixed Broadband

Many would still have expected Safaricom to be dominant at home internet speeds but Faiba surprisingly took the crown. The Jamii Telecom-owned ISP scored 22.70 in broadband speeds with the best Consistency Score at 44%. This surely comes as a shock given the stick that ISPs in Kenya get for inconsistent speeds.

Safaricom took second place but from afar with a score of 12.73 and a Consistency Score of 20%. Telkom (10.32) and AccessKenya (7.89) took fourth and fifth position respectively with Consistency Scores of 19.4% and 12%.

Unwired Communications Limited recorded the lowest latency at 17ms with Faiba at 23ms. Safaricom then trailed at 35ms even below Telkom at 30ms with AccessKenya registering 46ms mean latency.

As expected, Apple devices showed the fastest mean download speeds during Q1 2021 led by iPhone Xs Max with 38.39 Mbps. The iPhone 11 Pro Max released late last year followed closely with 38.12 Mbps then its smaller sibling iPhone 11 Pro that registered 36.38 Mbps.

With 5G available in the country ut still on the horizon in terms of regular usage, we could expect to see data from this new network going in as well soon.