MyBroadband has put South Africa’s Internet Service Providers to the test for the third time this year, and revealed the best and worst of the lot. The results of the Q3 2019 report are based on 31 867 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. 

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?

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 (though dropping from a 4.81 rating in Q2 to 4.69). 

Cybersmart has also held the second-place spot with a rating of 4.63, and Cipherwave has claimed third place from Q2's MTN with a rating of 3.91.

Q1's top ISP, Cool Ideas, now sits at fourth place with a rating of 3.81, on par with fifth place Vox. The company's dramatic drop in saisfaction rating is likely related to their recent problems with DDoS attacks, which severely damaged their customer experience. 

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 newcomer Herotel. 

The worst Internet Service Provider in South Africa – with an approval rating of just 2.17 (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. 

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