GSA’s June 2026 5G Experience report uses Opensignal data to assess availability, reliability, speeds, video quality and gaming experience. Its summary is blunt: Africa is grouped among regions with relatively weak video and gaming experiences, even as network investment continues.
That should matter to esports organisers, studios and creators. Mobile esports, livestreamed tournaments, cloud gaming, creator monetisation and digital storefronts all depend on latency, upload quality, reliability and affordability. The industry cannot market its way around weak infrastructure.
The practical answer is coalition-building. Tournament operators, streamers, studios and platforms should work with telecoms to define gaming-grade service targets, test event connectivity, support local edge infrastructure, publish latency benchmarks and treat network reliability as part of sponsorship and venue planning.