60% of internet traffic generated on the African continent originates from South Africa, according to a report by online service QuotesAdvisor.com.

In terms of average global broadband speeds, Cable.co.uk is said to rank South Africa in 76th place out of 200 countries.

QuotesAdvisor.com's report also makes mention of the Worldwide Broadband Speed League 2018 which positions South Africa in third place, behind Kenya and Madagascar.

Research shows that while South Africa has the fastest average mobile download speed in Africa at 22.42 Mbps, its mean download speed is 6.38Mbps and the time it takes to download a typical 5GB high-definition movie is 1hr 47min and 3 seconds.

Internetworldstats.com puts Africa's internet penetration rate, as of June 2019, at 39.8% - with the world average being 57.3%. South Africa is home to 32 615 165 internet users representing 56.2% of its population.

QuotesAdvisor.com says South Africa's Free State province has the fastest download speed, followed by Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng.

Download speed in the country's fastest province was 38.7% faster than that in the slowest (Northern Cape), while speeds in the country's largest cities are relatively similar, according to QuotesAdvisor.com

The two slowest provinces (Northern Cape and North West) are both along South Africa's northern border and are among the country's least densely populated.

QuotesAdvisor.com analysed its website traffic to specify the speed of the internet and the results suggest that Durban has the fastest download speed with 26.66 Mbps, followed by Pretoria with 24.25 Mbps and Johannesburg with 23.62 Mbps.

"Nevertheless, the difference in speed among the cities is so subtle that a casual user would not notice the difference at all. Even though the internet penetration in South Africa reaches over half of the population, it is low compared to the global average. The expansion of access to internet - and the fastest internet - is concentrated in the provinces that are more densely populated - as it is expected. Surprisingly enough, the city with the fastest mobile internet speed is Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal."