Rain 24/7 Unlimited 4G tested - Downloads, gaming, streaming, and a VPN

[Hanno Labuschagne]

Rain 24/7 Unlimited 4G tested - Downloads, gaming, streaming, and a VPN

Mobile operator Rain offers an Unlimited 4G 24/7 LTE product that offers uncapped mobile data for R479 per month, throttled at a speed of 10Mbps and limited to 360p streaming quality.

The product was launched on 17 March, days before the government announced the country would enter lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given its affordable price, many South Africans may have opted for the package in order to stay connected while stuck at home.

 

[torgo]

Your service was better because many left their network with all the crappy speed issues and non connectivity

 

[ShaunSA]

Can't wait for fibre to be online so I can ditch this product!

 

[p3rox1d3]

They must've known it was you and prioritized your traffic. I can barely break 1mbps on rain when it does work. For comparison I get atleast 40mbps on Afrihost LTE. I'd rather pay for working capped internet than for uncapped internet that does not work.

 

[Cactus]

They must've known it was you and prioritized your traffic. I can barely break 1mbps on rain when it does work. For comparison I get atleast 40mbps on Afrihost LTE. I'd rather pay for working capped internet than for uncapped internet that does not work.

That's not it.

These tests were performed in a neighbourhood with plenty of fibre coverage, and experiences are likely to differ based on the demand on Rain’s network in other areas.

Fibre area = no need for Rain by the majority of people in said area

 

[Shrimp]

Surpisingly, our video streaming resolutions seemed not to have been limited to a specific resolution but rather by the bandwidth of the connection.
...
The connection managed very well at 480p quality, with no buffering at all.

Torrents and a VPN
...
YouTube streaming was also improved, with 1080p HD and even 4K buffering not being an issue. Even when skipping ahead to unbuffered parts, the video would start playing in less than a second.

Regarding "seemed not to have been limited to a specific resolution but rather by the bandwidth of the connection", it may appear misleading considering the paragraph on VPNs then explains that much higher resolutions were possible on the same connection.

Rain definitely throttles Youtube significantly. It should also be noted that watching any live-streaming content at 480p is next to impossible and resolution needs to be dropped by a further quality notch or two until you're effectively watching a real-time mosaic animation. A VPN is pretty much required if you want to view live content.

I understand the package is described as only supporting 480p streaming, so that's fair, but it leaves a bad taste knowing the connection is capable of more and the limit is purely artificial.

 

[Kaysway]

Still think these restrictions should be placed on the R250 package, the where all the damage is done. At the very least they should only apply at peak times for those on the R479 package.

 

[Kaysway]

That's not it.



Fibre area = no need for Rain by the majority of people in said area

It was tongue-in-cheek

 

[backstreetboy]

Great article.

Netflix’s streaming resolution remained the same or even worse, however.

Lol what you get for using a terrible VPN. Windscribe worked great for me.

Regarding "seemed not to have been limited to a specific resolution but rather by the bandwidth of the connection", it may appear misleading considering the paragraph on VPNs then explains that much higher resolutions were possible on the same connection.

Rain definitely throttles Youtube significantly. It should also be noted that watching any live-streaming content at 480p is next to impossible and resolution needs to be dropped by a further quality notch or two until you're effectively watching a real-time mosaic animation. A VPN is pretty much required if you want to view live content.

I understand the package is described as only supporting 480p streaming, so that's fair, but it leaves a bad taste knowing the connection is capable of more and the limit is purely artificial.

Not at all.

 

[Fjorko]

Chrome does not play Netflix higher than 720p for some reason. Try Edge browser, or IE if you want to go higher

 

[diff33]

I also get less then 1mb/s on the 19hr unlimited package, down from an average of 38mb/s before 24/7 was launched, we tested both together same time same hardware and the 24/7 was getting 18mb/s. Tested with a vpn: 19hrs unlimited download speed goes up with VPN and 24/7 goes down with VPN. No answer or explanation of any kind from rain,

 

[DupLourens]

I use there network for work connectivity and it really sucks. On their coverage map it shows good 4G signal but far from it. When I spoke to there help line they are of no help as well. All they do is sell Sim cards and then leave the people to suffer with poor network quality.
Below are the screen shots of my speed.

 

[Gazg]

I would gladly take 11.75mbps........I get less than a pathetic 2mbps on a good day.

 

[devang]

I barely touched 1mbps with Rain. Cancelled the service. Stayed with my terrible Telkom LTE. No fibre and Telkom does not want to install ADSL for me either. Now I'm going to try Vodacom or MTN microwave.

 

[toocool]

Probably the worst service in the world, still do not have any customer service, line speed sucks.
promises more than 200Mbps but only gets 100Mbps, this is on the R1000.00 5g premium option.
They are going to get a very big surprise once the competition catches up to them, they will probably not have any customers left.

 

[IkeyG]

Rain 24/7 Unlimited 4G tested - Downloads, gaming, streaming, and a VPN

Mobile operator Rain offers an Unlimited 4G 24/7 LTE product that offers uncapped mobile data for R479 per month, throttled at a speed of 10Mbps and limited to 360p streaming quality.

The product was launched on 17 March, days before the government announced the country would enter lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given its affordable price, many South Africans may have opted for the package in order to stay connected while stuck at home.

I have been using RAIN 49 since the start of the lockdown and the speed sucks! Most days the download speed is between 0,8 and 2,8. To download anything from 600MB to 1GB takes between 17 hours to a day! I let my kids use it.
I have activated my Axxess Telkom card and get download speeds of between 30 and 54 Mbps. I once got a download speed of 94Mbps. I use both a Huawei B316 and a Huawei B525 router and Telkom is tops!

 

[Chockmeister-J]

Rain 24/7 Unlimited 4G tested - Downloads, gaming, streaming, and a VPN

Mobile operator Rain offers an Unlimited 4G 24/7 LTE product that offers uncapped mobile data for R479 per month, throttled at a speed of 10Mbps and limited to 360p streaming quality.

The product was launched on 17 March, days before the government announced the country would enter lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given its affordable price, many South Africans may have opted for the package in order to stay connected while stuck at home.

I was on the 19 hour per day for R 250 a month then upgraded to the Rain 24/7 Unlimited 4G LTE package...one of the worse products ever bought. If I reached 1Mbps download speed then I'm lucky.

 

[FaizalHendricks]

ALL LIES, come to my house and test. I get soeeds of 2kbps, they dont respond to service requests Or complaints on Hello Peter.

Why does My Broadband report on lies.

 

[NeonNinja]

ALL LIES, come to my house and test. I get soeeds of 2kbps, they dont respond to service requests Or complaints on Hello Peter.

Why does My Broadband report on lies.

Everything is relative.

 

[Kees125]

I also get less then 1mb/s on the 19hr unlimited package, down from an average of 38mb/s before 24/7 was launched, we tested both together same time same hardware and the 24/7 was getting 18mb/s. Tested with a vpn: 19hrs unlimited download speed goes up with VPN and 24/7 goes down with VPN. No answer or explanation of any kind from rain,

Exactly what I experienced, except that I had sometimes a week or more of no signal at all. They said they could not improve matters because of congestion. However, a Telkom sim worked at 10 to 18 mbs from same location. They said they would refund me and I asked or it. No refund and no response. Useless and incompetent company. To cap it all the teleconsultants one has to deal with are both poorly trained and to a man resort to Bulls..t when they do not have an answer.