What is the internet speed required for Netflix in South Africa? A lot of people have been asking that question. Netflix has been growing in popularity in the country over the past few years. In order to enjoy Netflix shows, you need to have a reliable and sufficient internet connection. Otherwise you will have buffering, which makes watching your shows something of a chore. So, what amount of bandwidth is required for Netflix?
Bandwidth required for Netflix
The following are the internet speed requirements for Netflix South Africa;
| Picture Quality | Recommended internet speed |
|---|---|
| SD | 1 Mbps |
| HD 720p | 3 Mbps |
| HD 1080p | 5 Mbps |
| 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) | 15 Mbps |
Minimum Speed for Netflix Standard Definition (SD)
The Netflix South Africa bandwidth requirements depend on the quality that you choose for your streaming. When streaming in Standard Definition (SD), you require speeds of over 1 Mbps. 1 Mbps is equivalent to 1000 kbps or 0.12 megabytes per second.
Just to put things into perspective, Rain’s unlimited 4G for any device package offers download speeds of up to 10 Mbps. SD streaming is best when watching your shows on a smaller screen such as on a phone or a tablet. The picture quality will be rather bad on a larger screen, such as on a TV.
You may be interested in learning whether or not Rain offers unlimited data
Internet Speed required for Netflix HD 720p
720p is the entry level HD quality. It’s good enough for bigger screens such as TVs. If you wish to watch Netflix shows on your TV, the bandwidth required is at least 3 Mbps. Anything less and you may be forced to scale back to SD viewing.
Bandwidth requirement for HD 1080p streaming on Netflix
So, what internet speed is required for Netflix 1080p streaming? In order to stream your shows at that quality, you need to have speeds of at leas 5Mbps. 1080p is full HD. It’s what you need if you really wish to enjoy the highest quality on your shows.
4K UHD bandwidth requirements
What are the bandwidth requirements for 4K UHD streaming on Netflix in South Africa? Well, if you want to stream in in 4K, you will need to have a connection of at least 15 Mbps.
Summary
In this post we focused on the internet speed that’s required for Netflix in South Africa. We noted that the speed that you need depends on your preferred streaming quality. If you are streaming in SD, you need less bandwidth than somebody who is streaming in Full HD or in 4K UHD.
Before you go, please check your internet speed using our speed testing tool. It’s a good idea to learn whether or not your current ISP is able to meet the Netflix bandwidth requirements.