By Yusef Taylor
An analysis of the internet speed of some 52 internet users was done soon after the introduction of 5G internet in The Gambia. The data collection and analysis were conducted by Amran Gaye, a Google IT Specialist who collated the data using social media and the analysis was done by Yusef Taylor of Gainako Online Newspaper who entered the data on excel and used Pivot Tables.
All speeds used in this mini-survey are download speeds measured in megabytes per second (Mbps).
Disclaimer: This is not a formal scientific study. There are many other variables that were not taken into account in this study, such as signal strength, type of phone hardware, distance to nearest tower, current time, cell network contention, weather, etc.
This is an informal mini-user survey conducted with Gambian correspondents on social media, who provided their bandwidth and current location. Plans to conduct another more detailed survey are underway with this being the first publication after receiving some 65 screenshots of speed test results from internet users.
Out of the 65 internet users who submitted a screenshot of their speed test, 52 are Gambians with known locations. The other results which were not from The Gambia and missing location information were excluded from the analysis.
Below is an analysis of the responses received according to network.
Analysis of responses by network
1. Out of the 52 responses received from internet users in The Gambia, the most received are from QCell (19) and Africell (19), followed by Comium 9. Meanwhile, INET, Gamtel ADSL, DK Telecom, Insist and Netpage all have one response each making it a total of 5 additional responses.
2. Out of the three main networks, Africell recorded the highest average download speed of 24.2 Mbps followed by QCell which recorded an average download speed of 8.2 Mbps. INET recorded the third-highest average download speed of 4.6 Mbps which is followed by Gamtel’s ADSL which recorded an average download speed of 4 Mbps. The rest of the network’s averages are shown in the chart above.
3. The maximum download speed of the Networks in the study was recorded by Africell (88 Mbps) followed by QCell (47 Mbps).
4. The third highest download speed recorded was on a Comium Network (11 Mbps) followed by INET which recorded a maximum download speed of 4.6 Mbps.
5. The minimum download speed recorded was on an Africell and Comium Network with 0.2 Mbps followed by QCell with 0.3 Mbps. The remaining networks’ minimum download speeds are shown in the chart above.
Analysis of Responses by Location
6. Out of the 52 responses received, 10 are from Brusubi, 5 from Bijilo. While Manjai, Fajara and Bundung all have three responses submitted in the survey. The number of responses from all other locations is shown in the chart above.
7. The location with the highest average download speed is Kanifing with 79.5 Mbps followed by Lamin in second with 52 Mbps. Kotu recorded the third-highest average speed of 49 Mbps. The average download speeds recorded in other locations are shown in the chart above.
8. The location with the maximum download speed was recorded in Kanifing (88 Mbps). This is followed by Lamin (52 Mbps), Kotu (49 Mbps) and Brikama (47 Mbps). Lamin and Kotu had only one response submitted for this study.
9. The location which recorded the minimum download speed is Brusubi (0.16 Mbps), followed by Fajara Junction (0.2 Mbps) and Tujereng (0.3 Mbps) coming in third. The minimum speeds recorded in all other locations are shown above.
