28 February 2025

South Africa’s Internet affordability improved substantially between 2023-2024, according to Surfshark’s latest Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index. However, the country’s internet performance deteriorated substantially compared to other countries.

South Africa’s DQL Index score of 0.4355 was an improvement of 4.13% over 2023. The score placed South Africa 66th out of 121 countries, compared with 72nd in the previous year. It was also 1st of the 25 assessed African countries. The country’s best pillar was internet affordability, where it climbed nine spots from 52nd to 43rd.

For mobile internet packages, South Africa climbed from 63rd to 44th, a 19-place jump. According to Surfshark, it would take the average South African worker an hour, 5 minutes, and eight seconds to earn enough money to afford a stable mobile internet connection. Although an improvement over 2023, it was still lower than the 35 seconds of 2022 and 59 seconds in 2021.

Fixed internet affordability improved just slightly from 42nd to 41st, with the time of work required for one of these packages at one hour, 34 minutes, and 12 seconds. South Africa also jumped 15 positions in the electronic infrastructure category and five spots in the electronic government ranking.

The main reason for the improvement in infrastructure was due to internet penetration increasing from 58% to 75% of the population, pushing South Africa up 17 spots in the ranking for this criterion. The country’s standing in electronic government improved due to the increased availability of government-run online services.

One area where South Africa’s DQL rating took a big hit was in Internet quality. The country’s ranking in this pillar plummeted 21 places to 84th. This was mostly to blame on South Africa’s fixed broadband performance. While average speeds increased from 70.21Mbps to 79.28Mbps, the improvement was less than what other countries had seen. The biggest culprit, however, was fixed internet stability, where South Africa’s ranking crashed from 27th to 96th – potentially due to multiple subsea cable outages across Africa’s coast in 2024.

The average mobile internet speed improved from 68.1Mbps to 91.44Mbps, pushing South Africa up to 48th in this indicator. Mobile internet stability also improved substantially, resulting in South Africa climbing 32 places to 31st out of all the analysed countries.