Everyone and their dog š¶ has run a Speedtest at some point. āHey, my Internet is slow, let me check Speedtest!ā But hereās the cold, hard truthāSpeedtest, especially the Ookla-hosted ones, is often a terrible way to measure real-world performance.
Yes, you heard me. Your favourite Speedtest might be lying to you. š
Letās break down why Speedtest is not the holy grail of troubleshooting and what you should be using instead.
š The Problem with Ookla Speedtest
Most people just fire up speedtest.net, hit āGo,ā and think theyāre getting the full picture. Nope. Hereās why:
1ļøā£ ISP-Hosted Servers are a Conflict of Interest
ISPs self-host their own Speedtest servers. This means when you run a Speedtest, thereās a good chance youāre not actually testing your real-world Internet performanceāyouāre just testing how fast you can talk to your ISPās own equipment. š¤¦
š“ Whatās wrong with this?
The test never leaves the ISPās network, so congestion, routing issues, and peering problems are completely ignored.
ISPs often prioritise traffic to their own Speedtest servers, meaning you might get better speeds than in real-world use.
Many of these servers are hosted on dodgy, old hardware, meaning the results are wildly inconsistent.
Think of it like running a 100m race on a treadmill in a controlled roomāsure, you might be fast, but can you sprint in a thunderstorm? āļø
2ļøā£ Speedtest Ignores Fairness
Speedtest runs a single TCP stream (or a few) to saturate your connection. But thatās not how real-world traffic works!
š“ Real traffic includes:
Multiple users/devices at once (your phone, laptop, smart TV all competing for bandwidth)
Applications with different priority levels (Zoom calls, gaming, Netflix, etc.)
Jitter and packet loss, which affect voice/video more than just raw speed
Speedtest doesnāt care about any of this. It just throws as much data as possible down the pipe for a few seconds and calls it a day. Thatās not how the Internet actually works.
3ļøā£ Latency? What Latency?
Speedtest hides latency issues by running tests in a way that makes everything seem smooth. Real networks experience jitter, congestion, and buffering, but Speedtest only shows you a basic ping (which is often misleading).
š“ Whatās wrong with this?
It doesnāt show real-world bufferbloat (high latency when your connection is under load)
It doesnāt expose peering problems (bad routing between ISPs)
It doesnāt reflect the latency-sensitive nature of apps like video calls or gaming š®
You can have a 500 Mbps Speedtest result but still have terrible Zoom calls and laggy gaming. Speedtest wonāt tell you why.
šÆ The Best Speedtest Server in SA? Afrihost!
Not all Speedtest servers are created equal. If you must use Ooklaās Speedtest, make sure you select Afrihostās server manually. Why?
ā
Afrihostās server is well-connected and has stable results
ā
Itās not hosted by an ISP trying to game the numbers
ā
It gives a more realistic view of your Internet performance
But letās be realāOoklaās Speedtest is still not ideal.
š The REAL Way to Test Your Internet | MyBroadband Speedtest
If you want the most accurate and fair Speedtest in South Africa, forget Ookla. Instead, head over to https://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za/.
Why? Because this server is hosted by Teraco, on the NAPAfrica backboneāmeaning:
ā
Youāre testing real-world performance, not ISP-optimised nonsense
ā
You get a neutral test across multiple ISPs
ā
Itās hosted in SAās biggest peering exchange, making it the best overall benchmark
This is the gold standard of bandwidth testing in SA. Anything else is just guessing.
š” Wrapping Up with the Bottom Line
Speedtest isnāt the magic bullet for troubleshooting. Most tests are:
š© Unfair ā They ignore congestion, fairness, and real-world conditions
š© Misleading ā ISP-hosted tests prioritise their own networks
š© Incomplete ā They ignore key factors like packet loss and latency
If you want a real measure of your Internet performance, ditch random ISP-hosted Speedtests and use MyBroadbandās Speedtest instead.
š Your Internet is more than just a number. Test wisely. š”
