Juice
Expert Member
I have three teenagers and it's all Tik Tok and Instagram now. The last time we came to the coast on holiday, data cost us (me) a fortune, so this year, to spare me from the constant nagging for data, I decided to get a Rain sim. R250 for unlimited off-peak data sounded like a fantastic deal. I checked coverage and our destination came up blue. I ordered the sim and a TP Link LTE router from Takealot. I tested it at home, and packed it for the holidays.
Within a week of arriving, the network tanked. Netflix fell first and browsing followed soon after. I actually clocked a 0.00 mbps download and a 0.00 mbps upload speed; which is probably as low as you can get while still nominally having a connection.
From what I can gather, and I assume the people who know better will correct me if I am wrong, but no-one actually has any 4G or 5G spectrum available yet. ICASA is still drafting policy and it only recently entered the public domain for stakeholder input. In the meantime, everyone has just been cannibalising their 3G spectrum to be able to provide 4G and 5G services. I'm sure this has made the problem worse, since it simply doesn't look like Rain is able to handle their subscriber load, especially in more remote areas.
My connection to the tower, as reported on the router, is usually fine and often in the double-digits. My connection to the internet, however, is dismall. And to make matters worse, Rain is very obviously throttling my connection from 7am onwards. I have pin-pointed the exact moment they close the tap to about 6:56 every day. After that, the network slowly peters out until it becomes altogether unusable by about 8am. At present the speeds are so bad that I struggle to run a speed test at all.
I have been trying to resolve the issue through their Twitter support team and their web-portal, for more than 2 weeks. For most of that time, their responses have been nothing more substantive than "hello", "sorry" and "we'll follow up and get back to you", if they respond at all.
Rain has left me sorely disappointed. They are obviously over-subscribed and their support is severely lacking in capacity, capability and transparency. Next time, I'll just use someone else, and if you are considering Rain as a filler-network for the holidays or travelling, I suggest you do the same.
Within a week of arriving, the network tanked. Netflix fell first and browsing followed soon after. I actually clocked a 0.00 mbps download and a 0.00 mbps upload speed; which is probably as low as you can get while still nominally having a connection.
From what I can gather, and I assume the people who know better will correct me if I am wrong, but no-one actually has any 4G or 5G spectrum available yet. ICASA is still drafting policy and it only recently entered the public domain for stakeholder input. In the meantime, everyone has just been cannibalising their 3G spectrum to be able to provide 4G and 5G services. I'm sure this has made the problem worse, since it simply doesn't look like Rain is able to handle their subscriber load, especially in more remote areas.
My connection to the tower, as reported on the router, is usually fine and often in the double-digits. My connection to the internet, however, is dismall. And to make matters worse, Rain is very obviously throttling my connection from 7am onwards. I have pin-pointed the exact moment they close the tap to about 6:56 every day. After that, the network slowly peters out until it becomes altogether unusable by about 8am. At present the speeds are so bad that I struggle to run a speed test at all.
I have been trying to resolve the issue through their Twitter support team and their web-portal, for more than 2 weeks. For most of that time, their responses have been nothing more substantive than "hello", "sorry" and "we'll follow up and get back to you", if they respond at all.
Rain has left me sorely disappointed. They are obviously over-subscribed and their support is severely lacking in capacity, capability and transparency. Next time, I'll just use someone else, and if you are considering Rain as a filler-network for the holidays or travelling, I suggest you do the same.
