How Many People on MB have Rain Problems?

[charlieharper]

Our tower is congested to death.... Very early mornings, 20-30mbps.. by around lunch time, I get 1mbps if I'm lucky and then switch over to my MTN router (which flies at 80-100mbps, but sadly capped at 150gb), till the next morning, to try Rain again.

I wish they also had 2600mhz here, cause 1800mhz congested to death.

 

[KopiteZA]

Be

Our tower is congested to death.... Very early mornings, 20-30mbps.. by around lunch time, I get 1mbps if I'm lucky and then switch over to my MTN router (which flies at 80-100mbps, but sadly capped at 150gb), till the next morning, to try Rain again.

I wish they also had 2600mhz here, cause 1800mhz congested to death.

Best I've gotten so far is 6mb. But only between 5 and 7 am, after that its back to sub 1mb speeds. I honestly feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, pay Rain the 479 monthly and get unlimited slow internet or go with Telkom and get 30gigs of fast internet which will be finished in less than a week! Icing on the cake is Vumatel removed my neighborhood from their map of areas that's expected to get fibre soon. Guess the best next thing for me would be to wait for Rain 5G to launch in Cape Town, pay for the premium package and hope to get atleast a constant 10mb download, that's how much I've lowered my expectations with this company.

 

[Fjorko]

Our tower is congested to death.... Very early mornings, 20-30mbps.. by around lunch time, I get 1mbps if I'm lucky and then switch over to my MTN router (which flies at 80-100mbps, but sadly capped at 150gb), till the next morning, to try Rain again.

I wish they also had 2600mhz here, cause 1800mhz congested to death.

Yes, story of my life. Have same issue

 

[Crumbl0x]

Hi. I wanted to find out what setup you went with as my speeds are non existent and im in Cape town Goodwood area. Please and thank you

Heya! I see on their optimiser page that your area has multiple towers around you, and that might not be good for reaching a specific tower that's robust and least congested. In this case my setup will not help you in the slightest, but I can recommend the Poynting OMNI-291 or similar omni-directional antennas for having a stronger net to cast in your area, and a suitable Huawei router which supports band switching and carrier aggregation, my TP-Link supports neither but I don't need it to in this case.
I hope this can help you in some way to better speeds!

 

[sherewarrior]

Yes, story of my life. Have same issue

Hi Ronald, can you log into your router admin interface and take a snapshot of the signal strength parameters? Which router do you have?

 

[Prim0]

Be
Best I've gotten so far is 6mb. But only between 5 and 7 am, after that its back to sub 1mb speeds. I honestly feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, pay Rain the 479 monthly and get unlimited slow internet or go with Telkom and get 30gigs of fast internet which will be finished in less than a week! Icing on the cake is Vumatel removed my neighborhood from their map of areas that's expected to get fibre soon. Guess the best next thing for me would be to wait for Rain 5G to launch in Cape Town, pay for the premium package and hope to get atleast a constant 10mb download, that's how much I've lowered my expectations with this company.

Wait wasn't your area part of the VumaReach rollout? What happened to the rollout plan that your area got removed.

 

[charlieharper]

Hi Ronald, can you log into your router admin interface and take a snapshot of the signal strength parameters? Which router do you have?

Signal not the greatest, which is strange cause we live like 300 metres from the tower.... But also, I popped Rain sim card into my iPhone few days ago and walked to the tower with my dog and did a speedtest right there.... it was still only like 1-2mbps.

There's another tower like 2km from here, but I kinda live inside a valley, so will need like a 20 metre tall pole for an antenna to have a chance of being Line of Sight.

 

[KopiteZA]

Wait wasn't your area part of the VumaReach rollout? What happened to the rollout plan that your area got removed.

That's correct. Up until about a month ago the Vuma Reach website showed my area as scheduled for fibre rollout, checked last weekend and saw we were removed. I have no idea what happened, almost every person I know here signed the consent form so I highly doubt it's because of a lack of interest from the community. And we were so excited for that 20mb fibre line for less than what we're paying Rain now!

 

[sherewarrior]

After setting up an external antenna (and living in an outskirt area) I've gotten constant 10mbps most of the day on 24/7 and 25mbps on 19/7, which is usually better after midnight. Before the lockdowns I used to be at 50-60mbps though but I won't complain. This naturally goes without saying that I had close to no speeds prior to the antenna.

 

[sherewarrior]

After setting up an external antenna (and living in an outskirt area) I've gotten constant 10mbps most of the day on 24/7 and 25mbps on 19/7, which is usually better after midnight. Before the lockdowns I used to be at 50-60mbps though but I won't complain. This naturally goes without saying that I had close to no speeds prior to the antenna.

Outdoor antenna should be standard, installed by a certified installer. This how it is in Scandinavia, where fixed wireless is very popular.

 

[sherewarrior]

I'm considering signing up to the R479.

rain — South Africa's unlimited 5G network

Unlimited 5G home wifi, portable 5G & unlimited mobile — all without contracts. rainone from R679/mo, the loop from R699/mo, unlimited mobile from R595/mo

www.rain.co.za

I'm based in Durban at the moment. Any suggestions before I do?

If you do, make sure you include an outdoor antenna in the cost. Never think a desktop router installed indoors will be give good performance consistently.

 

[sherewarrior]

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Signal not the greatest, which is strange cause we live like 300 metres from the tower.... But also, I popped Rain sim card into my iPhone few days ago and walked to the tower with my dog and did a speedtest right there.... it was still only like 1-2mbps.

There's another tower like 2km from here, but I kinda live inside a valley, so will need like a 20 metre tall pole for an antenna to have a chance of being Line of Sight.

I had a look... Your RSRP could be better. As a rule and a standard you should always use an outdoor antenna and never use the router indoors with a bunny ears. As you say I do believe that particular site is very congested. The site in Scottburgh North for example is less congested. If it was me I would buy the high-gain directional antennas and point them towards scottburgh.
Ideally you should use two directional antennas because the Huawei router has two antenna sockets. This is very important because two data streams are sent on the same frequency with different polarization, or cross polarization as they call it. This is your only hope right now and can only improve things but there is no guarantee.

 

[MEG101]

If you do, make sure you include an outdoor antenna in the cost. Never think a desktop router installed indoors will be give good performance consistently.

Yes, please make sure you have a outdoor antenna. It will dramatically improve speeds. I have a Huawei B311 on the R479 package and speeds were between 2 - 4 mbps and after moving the router around and installing the antenna, speeds improved to 10mbps down 10mbps. Also a good router is a must if you want fast constant speeds.

 

[sherewarrior]

Also download this app on Android from the play store. (Does not work on Apple sadly).Check out "Stats for Huawei LTE Routers":

Stats for Huawei LTE Routers - Apps on Google Play

Retrieve and display LTE signal stats from your Huawei LTE router.

play.google.com

Allows you to see more parameters on the B315 without having to log in all the time. See screenshot..

 

[charlieharper]

I had a look... Your RSRP could be better. As a rule and a standard you should always use an outdoor antenna and never use the router indoors with a bunny ears. As you say I do believe that particular site is very congested. The site in Scottburgh North for example is less congested. If it was me I would buy the high-gain directional antennas and point them towards scottburgh.
Ideally you should use two directional antennas because the Huawei router has two antenna sockets. This is very important because two data streams are sent on the same frequency with different polarization, or cross polarization as they call it. This is your only hope right now and can only improve things but there is no guarantee.

Thanks man!

I'm currently switching between Rain and MTN Fixed... I use Rain uncapped when I can, like in the mornings when still usable > 1mbps. Usually by 2-3pm it would become ridiculously slow and I would switch over to MTN, which is constantly over 80mbps - 100mbps, but unfortunately not uncapped.

Our neighbourhood received a green light for Fibre a few days ago, now just waiting for wayleaves to get approved by municipality. So unless the Fibre plans fall through, I won't be investing in anything related to Rain. lol

 

[NeonNinja]

Thanks man!

I'm currently switching between Rain and MTN Fixed... I use Rain uncapped when I can, like in the mornings when still usable > 1mbps. Usually by 2-3pm it would become ridiculously slow and I would switch over to MTN, which is constantly over 80mbps - 100mbps, but unfortunately not uncapped.

Our neighbourhood received a green light for Fibre a few days ago, now just waiting for wayleaves to get approved by municipality. So unless the Fibre plans fall through, I won't be investing in anything related to Rain. lol

You can get uncapped on MTN for R2995.

 

[charlieharper]

You can get uncapped on MTN for R2995.

oh I'm well aware of that.. but lets keep it real.

 

[sherewarrior]

Thanks man!

I'm currently switching between Rain and MTN Fixed... I use Rain uncapped when I can, like in the mornings when still usable > 1mbps. Usually by 2-3pm it would become ridiculously slow and I would switch over to MTN, which is constantly over 80mbps - 100mbps, but unfortunately not uncapped.

Our neighbourhood received a green light for Fibre a few days ago, now just waiting for wayleaves to get approved by municipality. So unless the Fibre plans fall through, I won't be investing in anything related to Rain. lol

No problem always happy to help. I can understand fully that you are allergic to RAIN right now but personally I would find out when rain 5G will hit your area. It works extremely well.
It is also faster than fibre believe it or not. As the fibre routers cannot do 450 megabits per second at the price.

 

[Polymathic]

You can get uncapped on MTN for R2995.

At that price I rather just get Business Fibre from Link Africa

 

[NeonNinja]

At that price I rather just get Business Fibre from Link Africa

That's the thing. Only 5% of the country has fibre.