What is the internet speed required for DSTV Now? It’s a question that a lot of people ask every now and again. Streaming is great in that it allows you to watch your shows from a laptop, phone or tablet. You do need to have a stable internet connection to make it work, however. Without that, you will have a lot of buffering. We have previously written an article on how to stop DSTV Now from buffering. One suggestion there is that you need to find a good ISP. But what’s the bandwidth requirements for DSTV Now?
DSTV Now bandwidth requirements
The minimum internet speed required for DSTV Now is 4 Mbps. However, DSTV recommends that you get a 10 Mbps connection for a greater streaming experience. It is also recommended that you sign up for an unlimited data plan with your ISP. Streaming eats up a lot of data. If you are doing it on a limited plan, you will probably exhaust your data before the end of the month.
Which companies offer these speeds?
That’s the internet speed required for DSTV Now. You may be wondering which companies in South Africa offer these speeds. To be frank, you will get at least 4 Mbps from all the ISPs in the country. The challenge lies in reliability and consistency.
You need to pick a company whose connection is reliable. In the table below, we explore the average download and upload speeds for some of the ISPs in South Africa. The results are based on testing using our tool.
| ISP | Download (Mbps) |
|---|---|
| Afrihost | 26 |
| Axxess | 22 |
| Cell C | 21 |
| Herotel | 23 |
| MTN Business | 25 |
| MWEB | 25 |
| Rain | 21 |
| Telkom | 22 |
| Vodacom | 22 |
| Web Africa | 23 |
As just noted, the above averages are based on testing through the SA Broadband speed testing tool. All the ISPs that were tested here gave speeds higher than 20 Mbps. That’s way above the 4 to 10 Mbps which is the internet speed required for DSTV Now.
What you need to do is to try out a number of ISPs to find the one that has a stable connection. We have already stated that stability is important. Otherwise you are going to have problems while trying to enjoy your DSTV Now shows.
Summary
In this post, we showed you the internet bandwidth requirements for DSTV Now. We noted that DSTV Now is a streaming service. As such, you need to have stable internet to make it work.
A lot of ISPs in South Africa offer the required levels of bandwidth. However, you need to find a company whose speeds are consistent for seamless streaming.