Who are the best internet providers in South Africa? Is my current line speed good enough? These are the questions you might be asking yourself if you’re looking for a new home or office internet service provider. Best Internet is here to guide you while you figure out if your current internet needs upgrading. Let’s dive in…
Don’t worry — you’re not going to have to make any calls, or dig up equipment boxes and user manuals for this one.
You can find out what your line speed is at any given moment in real-time using an online speed test. Your Mac or PC will, of course, need to be connected to the internet to conduct a speed test.
Once you click “Go”, your upload and download speeds will be tested using nearby servers. It mimics your online activity in a controlled setting.
Interested in finding out what your current line speed is? Use our speed test right now.
An easy way of finding out if your internet speed is slow is taking a closer look at how long it takes your internet to perform simple tasks — like opening an email or general browsing on Google.
If your internet is taking 3-4 seconds to load an email or a web page, chances are it is way too slow. It should take 1 second or less for simple tasks like this for your line speed to be considered fast or at least fast-ish.
Whether your speed is considered fast or slow — it’s important that it’s true to what your internet package line speed promises. If your package is a 20-Mbps line and you’re only getting 10 Mbps, you should contact your internet provider.
Various things can affect your internet line’s speed and quality. Here’s a few of them:
Multiple devices connected to one line.
The more devices using connected to the same line, the higher your chances are that its speed and quality will be affected.
Your internet line is almost like a multi-lane highway. When it comes to 5pm traffic with a ton more cars on the road — things start to slow down.
A household with four people living in it, using a single line should be fine with four smartphones, a TV and a laptop or two connected to it. But, if that household is going to add a couple more devices to its collection — they may want to consider getting a second line.
If you’re looking for hard numbers, fast internet would be considered to have 0% packet loss, less than 100 milliseconds of latency and jitter below 20 milliseconds.
Yes, the weather. Unfortunately, even in 2022, there are some things we can’t control and one of those is how the weather affects the internet.
Satellite, Wi-Fi, LTE and DSL are reliant on either telephone lines, cell towers or wireless signals to provide your internet. Although these technologies have their perks, being affected by bad weather is certainly not one of them.
If you’re living in an area that’s more famous for its mountains and rolling hills than its night life — chances are you’re living in a rural area or small town that’s far from signal towers.
This will affect the speed and quality of your internet. Most people in rural areas or on farmlands rely on satellite for internet as it has the farthest reach.
A simple truth is that you may have chosen a line that’s simply not enough bandwidth for you internet needs. If you’re using internet all day for high-level gaming, video conferencing, design and photo editing, web development and more, you’ll need sufficient bandwidth starting from a minimum of 20 Mbps.
There are three things you need to consider when looking for internet for your business: The number of employees; the number of devices; and the age and condition of the devices.
These factors will affect how much bandwidth your office will need every second, minute and hour of the day.
Remember, if your business is growing and you know you’ll be hiring more people in the coming months or years, take it into account when you’re browsing for internet providers.
Luckily, at Best Internet — you can compare the ISP you’ve got your eye on by the line speed that suits your needs. We’ve filtered these providers based on a one-size-fits-all 25Mbps line, which should suit all, save the bandwidth ravenous.
Here are our top (speedy fibre) picks, by price.
25Mbps upload and download speed
From R595 per month
Extras: Free to use router and setup
25Mbps upload and download speed
From R599 per month
Extras: Free installation, activation and router
25Mbps upload and download speed
From R635 per month
Extras: Free installation, activation and router
Now that we’ve answered all of your questions, are you ready to upgrade? We’re can help with that too – online and within minutes. And, you can filter by location, brand, price and speed on our super convenient platform.
Shop internet packages and more from the best internet providers with Best Internet.
