Every few months, MyBroadband puts South Africa’s Internet Service Providers to the test to determine which is the best and worst of the lot. 

The results of these reports are based on thousands of user satisfaction ratings, submitted through MyBroadband's web-based and mobile app speed test platforms.

After any user performs a speed test on either of MyBroadband’s speed test platforms, web-based or app, they are then asked to rate their ISP. These customer satisfaction ratings are then used to rank South Africa’s ISP’s. 

In order to ensure a neutral speed testing environment – an even playing field, so to speak – MyBroadband’s HTML5 speed test servers are hosted in Teraco’s vendor-neutral data centres, with speed test servers at NAPAfrica’s peering points in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. 

These testing platforms accurately measure internet speed, rather than on-net speed, which most other speed test services use. We literally have no idea what the difference is, but it sounds impressive. 

In the Q1 results (tested from January 2019 to March 2019), Cool Ideas emerged as both the fastest and highest-rated ISP in South Africa. 

In the Q2 results (tested from April 2019 to June 2019), Cool Ideas dropped from first place to fifth, with Supersonic claiming top spot. 

The Q3 results (tested from July 2019 to September 2019) saw Supersonic maintain that top spot.  

Let's take a look at the latest results - which is South Africa’s current best and worst (the worst is still Telkom, let’s not even pretend here) Internet Service Provider of 2019?

The following table ranks the top five ISP’s in South Africa, based on the average ratings received through MyBroadband’s web-based and mobile app speed tests. At the beginning of the year, MyBroadband noted that the same ISP’s that often topped the speed ranking list also ranked extraordinarily well in customer satisfaction ratings. 

Fancy that.

According to the findings, the best Internet Service Provider in South Africa remains Supersonic with a rating of 4.66 (dropping from a 4.81 rating in Q2 and 4.69 in Q3). 

Cybersmart has also held the second-place spot with an improved rating of 4.66, and Vox has claimed third place from Q3's CipherWave with a rating of 3.68.

Q1's top ISP, Cool Ideas, now sits at fourth place with a rating of 3.61. The company's dramatic drop in saisfaction rating is likely related to their recent problems with DDoS attacks, which severely damaged their customer experience. 

MTN rounded off the top 5 list with a rating of 3.57.

The absolute worst Internet Service Providers in South Africa came as no surprise. 

MWEB has long been a totem of incompetence in the industry, ranking third-worst on the list, just behind a fast-deteriorating Rain. 

The worst Internet Service Provider in South Africa – with an approval rating of just 2.19 (2.6 in Q1 and 2.2 in Q2. If at all possible, they seem to be getting worse and worse with every passing minute) - is Telkom, whose idea of internet is akin to something like two tin cans and a string. 

MyBroadband also revealed their Mobile Operator rankings. The ratings are in line with network performance, showing once more that customer satisfaction and network performance are very closely linked. 

MTN topped the list (also making the top 5 list of best internet providers), followed by Vodacom and then Rain and Telkom.

Cell C received the lowest average customer satisfaction rating, once again in line with their network quality.

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