The hidden drag on South Africa’s mobile networks

South Africa's mobile networks lag behind global leaders despite having comparable radio access network (RAN) equipment. According to Opensignal VP Sylwia Kechiche, the gap stems from systemic issues beyond the RAN: delayed sunsetting of 2G/3G technologies locks up valuable spectrum, a large portion of the population still uses legacy devices, fibre backhaul density is low, local data centre and CDN presence is limited, and content is often fetched from distant servers. Countries with denser fibre, local content hosting, and higher 4G/5G device penetration consistently outperform. Emerging solutions include satellite direct-to-device connectivity and infrastructure sharing among telcos.