Load-shedding is a massive problem for Rain 5G

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Jamie McKane

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Load-shedding is a massive problem for Rain 5G

MyBroadband readers have complained that their Rain 5G services are suffering from connectivity issues and outages.

One reader who lives in the Centurion area told MyBroadband that they had been without any service on their Rain 5G package since 10 February.
 
That is actually the only obstacle holding me back from subscribing.

Have no problems keeping VDSL up during loadshedding at the moment.
 
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Apogee said:
That is actually the only obstacle holding me back from subscribing.

Have no problems keeping ADSL up during loadshedding at the moment.
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Well my ADSL dies in PE after about 30 minutes of Load Shedding. I can power my router from my inverter but the DSLAM or whatever they are called boxes have no backup.
 
i have been down since the 12th only response i get from the online chat is the tower is down, the next day its a network outage. i am busy trying to get it sorted with them otherwise i will be cancelling and getting a refund.
 
Will stick with fibre thanks. Won't use a cheapskate who can't provide me service during loadshedding...
 
stefan9 said:
Will stick with fibre thanks. Won't use a cheapskate who can't provide me service during loadshedding...
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I wonder what it costs to provision a tower for load shedding?

And then there's the cost of regularly replacing stolen batteries. Absolute nightmare for MTN, as has been well documented.

Effects of load shedding being felt in every industry.
 
I will also remain on Fibre no way I am giving it up for any wireless technology, now back to the article, one thing pops to mind - You pay for what you get.

I have seen this over and over, new guy comes in at a low price... low cost strategy entails cost cutting on network components (no backup batteries) and recourses (Call Centre, Technical Support desk etc). It gets nominated as THE BEST PROVIDER, three years down the line they are 5th... why? More customers means more recourses, period and without decent profit less recourses than what's required - but hey then there is a new low cost company coming in right which must mean they are THE BEST PROVIDER RIGHT! and so the cycle continue
 
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Underworld said:
I will also remain on Fibre no way I am giving it up for any wireless technology, now back to the article, one thing pops to mind - You pay for what you get.

I have seen this over and over, new guy comes in at a low price... low cost strategy entails cost cutting on network components (no backup batteries) and recourses (Call Centre, Technical Support desk etc). It gets nominated as THE BEST PROVIDER, three years down the line they are 5th... why? More customers means more recourses, period and without decent profit less recourses than what's required - but hey then there is a new low cost company coming in right which must be the best and so the cycle continue
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in my case this is the only viable internet connectivity i have, there is no fibre in my road and ADSL just makes no sense to go to... For me i am lucky though, when there is load shedding my internet does drop to 4G but its still usable most of the time
 
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this weekend i was in an area with terrible telkom reception. i pretty much only got signal on their vodacom roaming, but with an edge connection. 0 throughput. sometimes i got telkom with hsdpa, but again, 0 throughput.

would have killed for 56k.
 
Stillie said:
in my case this is the only viable internet connectivity i have, there is no fibre in my road and ADSL just makes no sense to go to... For me i am lucky though, when there is load shedding my internet does drop to 4G but its still usable most of the time
Click to expand...

I might be moving to Cape Town soon, well if everything works out... believe me I am not buying any house where there is no Fibre - that's a minimum requirement for me lol, and I don't mind if the house is more expensive and smaller than the one which is huge and far less but without fibre - I only stream and not interested in DSTV or anything else that can go towards my solar electricity installation down payment :D
 
Easter Bunny said:
this weekend i was in an area with terrible telkom reception. i pretty much only got signal on their vodacom roaming, but with an edge connection. 0 throughput. sometimes i got telkom with hsdpa, but again, 0 throughput.

would have killed for 56k.
Click to expand...

That's roaming... the article refers to fixed wireless, guys use it one location where 5G Rain is.
 
pedruid said:
Well my ADSL dies in PE after about 30 minutes of Load Shedding. I can power my router from my inverter but the DSLAM or whatever they are called boxes have no backup.
Click to expand...
That usually means Telkom don't have enough battery capacity to keep it up for longer.

If they had no backup, xDSL will also cease working the moment loadshedding is activated.
 
Easter Bunny said:
this weekend i was in an area with terrible telkom reception. i pretty much only got signal on their vodacom roaming, but with an edge connection. 0 throughput. sometimes i got telkom with hsdpa, but again, 0 throughput.

would have killed for 56k.
Click to expand...
Thats because Vodacom doesn't actually let you ROAM with data with a Telkom SIM on 2G. They did when they were with MTN. But basically 2G data DOES NOT WORK for Telkom-roaming on Vodacom

Its something that caused us to have to swap out 50 different SIM's in various locations in March 2019.
No one seems aware of it at all.

As usual - quite a big scandal - but not really any action:

Big issues with Telkom roaming

I must say that at least from my side this issue has disappeared.
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
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No issues with my fibre, have had 14 hour failures, my little battery ONT and router powered by a UPS
 
This thing is looking less and less like "fibre in the sky".
 
Ill get Rain 5G if they put up a tower in my yard, that way I have proper signal, and they don't get load shedding. So far since load shedding started I've only had power go out 4 times in total
 
Well, I have to admit that I do not agree that the speed drops to that of a 56k modem. At the very least maybe to 4G speeds in my area. Anyway Telkom's 4G LTE is even worse than 56K, during load-shedding as the towers go down within 15 mins and you have ZERO internet - Telkom has admitted that they have an issue with this due to theft of batteries etc. Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C are non existent during load-shedding.

Aother thing for those so dedicated to Telkom and VDSL. Telkom is busy phasing out all copper lines and you will end up with a FLLA - Fixed Line Look Alike and only get a 4Mbps line IF you are lucky.

So far they don't even have capacity to deliver even that in my area, so my only choice was RAIN and I am prepared to go through the teething problems, as it's cheaper and faster than Fibre - which none of the other providers can give me at my address yet.
 
Jamie McKane said:
Load-shedding is a massive problem for Rain 5G

MyBroadband readers have complained that their Rain 5G services are suffering from connectivity issues and outages.

One reader who lives in the Centurion area told MyBroadband that they had been without any service on their Rain 5G package since 10 February.
Click to expand...

I have had all the above scenarios happen.
Received my router on 7th Feb. Have been trying since then to get proper support.
First the Tower that doesnt recover after loadshedding
Then its the router should be mounted outside for best performance(Rather it MUST to be mounted outside for any reception)
Then its the router must be mounted for line of sight connection to the Tower.
Then the tech suggest that it be mounted on a pole on the roof for nothing to block the signal.

The download speed is so intermittent that I get between 2Mbs and 250Mbs. While the QoS is too bad to stream anything. Even normal browsing on PC or Mobile is unpleasant. (not 56k like, but very very bad)
They advertise this as a plug and play product. Its absolutely not true. In my case I would need a pole installed on the roof and then get a long enough CAT 5e or higher cable all the way in the house to an indoor router. This scenario was not tested yet, so even this is not guaranteed I will have improved service.

Im very close on demanding a full refund.
 
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