Is Rain really LTE-A?

cavedog

cavedog

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So I've been doing some digging.

Maybe some one can confirm which frequency RAIN LTE operates. I know 1 of them is band 3 aka 1800MHz and the other one?

I tried forcing the B618 to the supported frequency and I was only able to pick up LTE on Band 3 1800MHz. If that is the case then this is a normal LTE offering and not a LTE-A offering unless the coverage is scattered and only certain parts of their coverage map offers LTE-A

Can someone maybe confirm or correct me if I'm wrong? :)
 
So it operates on 1800 and 2600. However it makes sense that it will support LTE A as well as regular LTE on just one band. Another however, it does seem to be throttled and so it's hard to see the benefits for the band aggregation
 
Doubt it it's LTE-A , just look at the offering from Axxess and Afrihost. Both offering a non LTE-A device
 
dotcat said:
So it operates on 1800 and 2600. However it makes sense that it will support LTE A as well as regular LTE on just one band. Another however, it does seem to be throttled and so it's hard to see the benefits for the band aggregation
Click to expand...

Would be interesting to know how much spectrum rain has. They are supposed to be faster because they don't have to spend spectrum on 3g and 2g and can use all on the 2 lte bands yet the speeds are bitterly disappointing for an lte-a offer.

Vodacom lte-a with refarmed spectrum from 3g and all the users on the tower gets like 140Mbps down and 27Mbps up.

What a pitty. I suspect rain will soon be way slower than Telkom....
 
cavedog said:
Would be interesting to know how much spectrum rain has. They are supposed to be faster because they don't have to spend spectrum on 3g and 2g and can use all on the 2 lte bands yet the speeds are bitterly disappointing for an lte-a offer.

Vodacom lte-a with refarmed spectrum from 3g and all the users on the tower gets like 140Mbps down and 27Mbps up.

What a pitty. I suspect rain will soon be way slower than Telkom....
Click to expand...
Rain is Vodacom, there will be an article in the future I'm sure of it.
 
"1 x 10 TDD & 2 x 12 FDD". "15 MHz of 2.6 GHz" according to some quick Googling. So seems as though there is the possibility to aggregate on both bands but will fall back to normal LTE for 1800mhz band. Interesting that they now offering the b315 which is just plain LTE. I'll take the rain sim out of the B618 and pop the rain sim in the b315 on the weekend and see what difference it makes.
 
Well i put this sim into my old iphone which doesnt support LTE-A from what i recall and it worked.
 
dotcat said:
"1 x 10 TDD & 2 x 12 FDD". "15 MHz of 2.6 GHz" according to some quick Googling. So seems as though there is the possibility to aggregate on both bands but will fall back to normal LTE for 1800mhz band. Interesting that they now offering the b315 which is just plain LTE. I'll take the rain sim out of the B618 and pop the rain sim in the b315 on the weekend and see what difference it makes.
Click to expand...
I stuck my RAIN SIM into my B315 while I was waiting for adapters for the external antenna. Had to connect at 1800 and speeds were dismal. About 20Mbps if I recall correctly.

Got the adapters and went back to the B618. Average around 50Mbps with an odd peak at 70.
 
dotcat said:
"1 x 10 TDD & 2 x 12 FDD". "15 MHz of 2.6 GHz" according to some quick Googling. So seems as though there is the possibility to aggregate on both bands but will fall back to normal LTE for 1800mhz band. Interesting that they now offering the b315 which is just plain LTE. I'll take the rain sim out of the B618 and pop the rain sim in the b315 on the weekend and see what difference it makes.
Click to expand...

Yes I think Axxess got it completely wrong. B315 does not support LTE-A firstly and routers are distributed by Digital Planet so I doubt Rain will start giving out B315 for the same price as the B618.

I have tested the B593, B315, B618 and Samsung s8. The s8 immediately shows up 4G+ but with 1 bar then switches to normal 4G and gets 3 bars and switches back to 4G+ with 1 bar. So it was interesting to see. Was not able to monitor the Cell ID on my S8 which is a pitty.

Wonder if Rain is running both frequencies on the same tower? And as far as I can read CA is supported with FDD and TDD combination so that is interesting to see that if that happens properly a single router should have access to quite a lot of bandwidth but haven't seen any of that.

With RAIN's type of setup I was expecting speeds to exceed 100Mbps even if it's just @ 1am but it's not happening which is sad.

EDIT:

See now Axxess and Afrihost is selling the B315. Would be interesting to see what version of the B315 because as far as I know but I stand to corrected the Telkom B315 does not support the 2600MHz band. :erm:
 
Last edited:
cavedog said:
Yes I think Axxess got it completely wrong. B315 does not support LTE-A firstly and routers are distributed by Digital Planet so I doubt Rain will start giving out B315 for the same price as the B618.

I have tested the B593, B315, B618 and Samsung s8. The s8 immediately shows up 4G+ but with 1 bar then switches to normal 4G and gets 3 bars and switches back to 4G+ with 1 bar. So it was interesting to see. Was not able to monitor the Cell ID on my S8 which is a pitty.

Wonder if Rain is running both frequencies on the same tower? And as far as I can read CA is supported with FDD and TDD combination so that is interesting to see that if that happens properly a single router should have access to quite a lot of bandwidth but haven't seen any of that.

With RAIN's type of setup I was expecting speeds to exceed 100Mbps even if it's just @ 1am but it's not happening which is sad.

EDIT:

See now Axxess and Afrihost is selling the B315. Would be interesting to see what version of the B315 because as far as I know but I stand to corrected the Telkom B315 does not support the 2600MHz band. :erm:
Click to expand...

My Telkom b315 is the B315s-936 model. the same as you buy from Takealot.

The frequency bands of the product are as follows.
- LTE: Band 1/3/40/41
- FDD 2100 MHz/1800 MHz TDD 2300MHz/2600 MHz
- UMTS: Band 1/8 2100 MHz/900 MHz
- GSM: Band 2/3/5/8 1900 MHz/1800 MHz/850 MHz/900 MHz
 
would be great to test the service at location before committing.

feels like a tough luck trap
 
cavedog said:
See now Axxess and Afrihost is selling the B315. Would be interesting to see what version of the B315 because as far as I know but I stand to corrected the Telkom B315 does not support the 2600MHz band. :erm:
Click to expand...

:whistle:
 
Dan C said:
:whistle:
Click to expand...
B315 Free vs B618 R999 pay in..

4f380f47aa79481b3ed2dc32793cf698.jpg
 
naeem.ally said:
I thought the B315 model is only LTE and not LTE-A?
Click to expand...

It's not LTE-A Axxess is misleading the public. LTE-A is category 6 and upwards. The B315 no matter what model is Category 4 LTE
 
Well WebAfrica doesnt claim LTE-A anymore. Got this in my email today : Webafrica LTE at Home is ready and waiting for you.
Come and get it!
 
ghostim said:
Well WebAfrica doesnt claim LTE-A anymore. Got this in my email today : Webafrica LTE at Home is ready and waiting for you.
Come and get it!
Click to expand...

Also just got that mail. Says 'You're LTE Ready, we checked' . Obviously they have my old address :p
 
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