What is the internet speed required for YouTube live streaming in South Africa. YouTube is immensely popular in the country. A lot of people download music and shows for viewing at their convenience. If this is how you use YouTube, you will probably get away with even the lowest speeds. However, if you wish to live stream shows, news and other events off YouTube, what will your bandwidth requirements be?
Bandwidth requirements for YouTube
The following are the internet speeds required for YouTube live streaming in South Africa;
| Streaming Resolution | Required speed |
|---|---|
| SD 360p | 0.7 Mbps |
| SD 480p | 1.1 Mbps |
| HD 720p | 2.5 Mbps |
| HD 1080p | 5 Mbps |
| 4K UHD | 20 Mbps |
As you can see in the above table, the internet speed required for YouTube live streaming depends on the video quality that you have chosen. If you choose the lowest quality, 360p, you will need bandwidth of about 0.7 Mbps.
However, 360p is not such a good resolution. It will work well enough on small devices, such as on phones. However, on larger devices, you will need better streaming resolutions to be able to enjoy whatever it is that you are watching.
If you choose SD 480p, you will need about 1.1 Mbps for YouTube live streaming. 480p is good enough for mobile devices. On smaller screens, the image will probably be watchable.
However, if you wish to live stream on bigger devices, such as laptops and TVs, you will have to go for at least HD 720p. Otherwise the screen will be blurry and you will not enjoy your shows. The internet speed required for YouTube live streaming at 720p is 2.5 Mbps.
You may also wish to go Full HD at 1080p. That’s suitable for all screens, particularly larger screens. At 1080p, the internet speeds that you require are 5Mbps.
If you have an unlimited plan, such as the Rain 5G plan, you may be looking to stream in 4K Ultra HD. Please note that you need to have a TV that supports UHD in order to get the kind of quality that’s possible here. Otherwise, you will just be wasting your bandwidth.
Average download speeds in South Africa
The table below shows the average upload and download speeds for ISPs that are popular in South Africa. You can see that all these ISPs offer more than enough average speeds for YouTube live streaming. However, you need to test their reliability to find the best.
| ISP | Download Averages | Upload Averages |
|---|---|---|
| Afrihost | 43Mbps | 31 Mbps |
| Cell C | 29Mbps | 20 Mbps |
| MTN | 25Mbps | 17 Mbps |
| MWEB | 25Mbps | 17 Mbps |
| Rain | 26Mbps | 13 Mbps |
| Telkom | 24Mbps | 10 Mbps |
| Vodacom | 24Mbps | 13 Mbps |
| Vox Telecom | 24Mbps | 25 Mbps |
Summary
In this article, we showed you the internet speed required for YouTube live streaming in South Africa and elsewhere. We noted that you need a steady internet connection to enjoy whatever it is that you are streaming.
Having shows buffer can make for a frustrating viewing experience. In the second part of this post, we gave you the internet speed averages for a few of the most popular ISPs in the country.
We noted that all of them have speeds that meet the requirements for YouTube streaming. However, you will have to carry out further investigations to determine whether or not a particular ISP is reliable.
Please use our tool to test your internet speed to see if it meets the requirements laid out here.