Rain Premium 5G same speed as Standard 5G

M

Migael69

Member
Joined
May 12, 2020
Messages
12
Reaction score
1
Good day everyone,

I have had my Rain service for about a week now. I am on the Premium package which boasts average speeds of 300mbps.
When I do the Rain optimization test on their website, it tells me my download speed is 350mbps BUT when I do any other speed test online, my speed is always average 20/30mbps regardless of what Rain's official speed test shows. And then in real life I never get over 11mbps actual downloading speed in practice.

So my question is this - what is the point of the Rain optimization speed test and what does it actually mean if my actual speeds are nothing close to the claimed 350mbps?
Then my next question is - if I downgrade to the Standard package which is supposed to be 30mbps average, would I then probably still be getting the same speeds I am getting now since I never actually get over 30mbps regardless of Rain's website telling me I do.
Any advice from people on the standard package, that have downgraded or upgraded, have you noticed an actual difference in speed? Is the premium worth it or will I still have my current speeds if I downgrade?

I hope I have been clear and thanks for reading:)
 
Hi, @Migael69

Firstly we are both new Members to mybroadband and also new Rain-Home-Premium Subscribers. Hey!!!

Apparently Rain recently introduced the Rain Standard Plan, which is a tier below their normal offering and renamed their normal one to the Home premium. At initial offering back in November 2019 Rain's 5G looked promising, speeds of 500 Mbps were possible in the initial 500 000 households back then. The true test, however, came when Rain launched commercial 5G services and when thousands of subscribers used the network simultaneously. i.e. Most of us got it during the RSA Lockdown.

There's a whole explanation on how rain uses it bandwidth and the three network configurations:
  • 4G 1,800MHz in FDD
  • 4G 2,600MHz in TDD
  • 5G 3,600MHz in TDD
Read this Article for a better understanding of FDD and TDD. Hopefully they can use the newly allocated Bandwidth that ICASA gave to good use because some of us are not impressed by the speeds. I am not sure if we even reached that 80 Mbps speed to activate the device, I think they just said it will improve over time - Let's activate.

Basically what I think has happened here is that rain has had a more than expected commercial success than actually anticipated. They have expanded their footprint and added more towers around Johannesburg and Cape Town, meaning more reach to new costumers like ourselves.

I think it's not worth downgrading our home premium packages or leaving the Network yet. I for one will give Rain a chance for a couple of Months to see what transpires - they should improve if they plan to keep us around. The current conditions of the country has added more demand than ever. Khaya Dlanga you've done a good job of getting our attention, now you need to back-it-up.
 
BlackAngel said:
Hi, @Migael69

Firstly we are both new Members to mybroadband and also new Rain-Home-Premium Subscribers. Hey!!!

Apparently Rain recently introduced the Rain Standard Plan, which is a tier below their normal offering and renamed their normal one to the Home premium. At initial offering back in November 2019 Rain's 5G looked promising, speeds of 500 Mbps were possible in the initial 500 000 households back then. The true test, however, came when Rain launched commercial 5G services and when thousands of subscribers used the network simultaneously. i.e. Most of us got it during the RSA Lockdown.

There's a whole explanation on how rain uses it bandwidth and the three network configurations:
  • 4G 1,800MHz in FDD
  • 4G 2,600MHz in TDD
  • 5G 3,600MHz in TDD
Read this Article for a better understanding of FDD and TDD. Hopefully they can use the newly allocated Bandwidth that ICASA gave to good use because some of us are not impressed by the speeds. I am not sure if we even reached that 80 Mbps speed to activate the device, I think they just said it will improve over time - Let's activate.

Basically what I think has happened here is that rain has had a more than expected commercial success than actually anticipated. They have expanded their footprint and added more towers around Johannesburg and Cape Town, meaning more reach to new costumers like ourselves.

I think it's not worth downgrading our home premium packages or leaving the Network yet. I for one will give Rain a chance for a couple of Months to see what transpires - they should improve if they plan to keep us around. The current conditions of the country has added more demand than ever. Khaya Dlanga you've done a good job of getting our attention, now you need to back-it-up.
Click to expand...
Did you really just join mybroadband to post that? Remember to get your Rain company rep badge. :ROFL:
 
BlackAngel said:
Hi, @Migael69

Firstly we are both new Members to mybroadband and also new Rain-Home-Premium Subscribers. Hey!!!

Apparently Rain recently introduced the Rain Standard Plan, which is a tier below their normal offering and renamed their normal one to the Home premium. At initial offering back in November 2019 Rain's 5G looked promising, speeds of 500 Mbps were possible in the initial 500 000 households back then. The true test, however, came when Rain launched commercial 5G services and when thousands of subscribers used the network simultaneously. i.e. Most of us got it during the RSA Lockdown.

There's a whole explanation on how rain uses it bandwidth and the three network configurations:
  • 4G 1,800MHz in FDD
  • 4G 2,600MHz in TDD
  • 5G 3,600MHz in TDD
Read this Article for a better understanding of FDD and TDD. Hopefully they can use the newly allocated Bandwidth that ICASA gave to good use because some of us are not impressed by the speeds. I am not sure if we even reached that 80 Mbps speed to activate the device, I think they just said it will improve over time - Let's activate.

Basically what I think has happened here is that rain has had a more than expected commercial success than actually anticipated. They have expanded their footprint and added more towers around Johannesburg and Cape Town, meaning more reach to new costumers like ourselves.

I think it's not worth downgrading our home premium packages or leaving the Network yet. I for one will give Rain a chance for a couple of Months to see what transpires - they should improve if they plan to keep us around. The current conditions of the country has added more demand than ever. Khaya Dlanga you've done a good job of getting our attention, now you need to back-it-up.
Click to expand...

Thank you for a wonderfully detailed response

My speeds literally seem to be capped at around 30mb/s down so I'm still wondering whether I would still get that if I downgraded or if it would then be 'capped' to like 3mb/s doesn't make sense to pay the premium price if I'm getting the speed that they advertise for the standard package. I'm starting to think all their speed talk and streaming caps is all bs and everything just runs on the same speed anyway tbh
 
Migael69 said:
Thank you for a wonderfully detailed response

My speeds literally seem to be capped at around 30mb/s down so I'm still wondering whether I would still get that if I downgraded or if it would then be 'capped' to like 3mb/s doesn't make sense to pay the premium price if I'm getting the speed that they advertise for the standard package. I'm starting to think all their speed talk and streaming caps is all bs and everything just runs on the same speed anyway tbh
Click to expand...
How do you connect to the router? Cable or WiFi connection?
 
I honestly would recommend a pigeon with a memory stick over RAIN.

I would recommend a hammer to the knee cap over RAIN.

I think I am going to build a website of just videos of how bad rain is, from service to service delivery and call it norain.co.za and do some clever seo to dominate google searches... maybe then they will actually help and not just steal like they currently are doing.

only way dodgy business like rain respond is when it hits their bottom line.
 
Migael69 said:
Thank you for a wonderfully detailed response

My speeds literally seem to be capped at around 30mb/s down so I'm still wondering whether I would still get that if I downgraded or if it would then be 'capped' to like 3mb/s doesn't make sense to pay the premium price if I'm getting the speed that they advertise for the standard package. I'm starting to think all their speed talk and streaming caps is all bs and everything just runs on the same speed anyway tbh
Click to expand...

I am in exactly the same position.. I am on the premium package and when I do a speedtest, I get up to 250Mb/s.. but actual download speeds have rarely gone above 100mb/s.. which is still much better than my 10mb adsl, but still not what was promised.
 
BlackAngel said:
Hi, @Migael69

Firstly we are both new Members to mybroadband and also new Rain-Home-Premium Subscribers. Hey!!!

Apparently Rain recently introduced the Rain Standard Plan, which is a tier below their normal offering and renamed their normal one to the Home premium. At initial offering back in November 2019 Rain's 5G looked promising, speeds of 500 Mbps were possible in the initial 500 000 households back then. The true test, however, came when Rain launched commercial 5G services and when thousands of subscribers used the network simultaneously. i.e. Most of us got it during the RSA Lockdown.

There's a whole explanation on how rain uses it bandwidth and the three network configurations:
  • 4G 1,800MHz in FDD
  • 4G 2,600MHz in TDD
  • 5G 3,600MHz in TDD
Read this Article for a better understanding of FDD and TDD. Hopefully they can use the newly allocated Bandwidth that ICASA gave to good use because some of us are not impressed by the speeds. I am not sure if we even reached that 80 Mbps speed to activate the device, I think they just said it will improve over time - Let's activate.

Basically what I think has happened here is that rain has had a more than expected commercial success than actually anticipated. They have expanded their footprint and added more towers around Johannesburg and Cape Town, meaning more reach to new costumers like ourselves.

I think it's not worth downgrading our home premium packages or leaving the Network yet. I for one will give Rain a chance for a couple of Months to see what transpires - they should improve if they plan to keep us around. The current conditions of the country has added more demand than ever. Khaya Dlanga you've done a good job of getting our attention, now you need to back-it-up.
Click to expand...

And just when I thought no one could beat CR's idiotic ramblings on Tuesday night.

Out pops rain's cheerleading squad with what must be the most optimistically delusional drivel since, well since Tuesday night.
 
Rain is a ICT company. ICT is a essential service during quarantine , so dont let RAIN use the quarintine as a excuse for the Quality or lack of their services at the moment.
 
Misanthrope said:
And just when I thought no one could beat CR's idiotic ramblings on Tuesday night.

Out pops rain's cheerleading squad with what must be the most optimistically delusional drivel since, well since Tuesday night.
Click to expand...

Mark Twain said:

"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"

:giggle: :p

E1b0 said:
How do you connect to the router? Cable or WiFi connection?
Click to expand...

For me it does not make so much of a difference. Yes Cable is quicker; On my side I got about ~16Mbps on cable while I got about ~9Mbps on WiFi: On average.

Migael69 said:
Thank you for a wonderfully detailed response

My speeds literally seem to be capped at around 30mb/s down so I'm still wondering whether I would still get that if I downgraded or if it would then be 'capped' to like 3mb/s doesn't make sense to pay the premium price if I'm getting the speed that they advertise for the standard package. I'm starting to think all their speed talk and streaming caps is all bs and everything just runs on the same speed anyway tbh
Click to expand...

If you feel it is not worth it maybe you should switch. Even consider Fibre, as suggested above: I for one, don't have the luxury of Fibre as an option. Oh also as a fine print here, you can't switch mid-month; Your request will be actioned at the end of the your monthly billing cycle.

The day I read this post, I logged a support ticket to Rain. Yes they took forever to respond to me - I even forgot I made it. Then all of a sudden I got a response: Like those "Hey Stranger..." texts.

Basically they asked me to Reset my device and do the config again. And run tests again on activate.rain.co.za that obviously lied to me and showed me speeds of about 220Mbps, The the device activated. Then they said to run another on speed test on speed.rain.co.za that put me on the ranges of 190sMbps - I still did not believe that.

I ran my own test several times. I went above 80Mbps. Not sure if they did something in the background or not but that dramatically improved my speeds. I suggest doing that so-long while you still using the service you've paid for.

@Migael69 I hope that is helpful to you.
 
BlackAngel said:
Mark Twain said:

"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"

:giggle: :p



For me it does not make so much of a difference. Yes Cable is quicker; On my side I got about ~16Mbps on cable while I got about ~9Mbps on WiFi: On average.



If you feel it is not worth it maybe you should switch. Even consider Fibre, as suggested above: I for one, don't have the luxury of Fibre as an option. Oh also as a fine print here, you can't switch mid-month; Your request will be actioned at the end of the your monthly billing cycle.

The day I read this post, I logged a support ticket to Rain. Yes they took forever to respond to me - I even forgot I made it. Then all of a sudden I got a response: Like those "Hey Stranger..." texts.

Basically they asked me to Reset my device and do the config again. And run tests again on activate.rain.co.za that obviously lied to me and showed me speeds of about 220Mbps, The the device activated. Then they said to run another on speed test on speed.rain.co.za that put me on the ranges of 190sMbps - I still did not believe that.

I ran my own test several times. I went above 80Mbps. Not sure if they did something in the background or not but that dramatically improved my speeds. I suggest doing that so-long while you still using the service you've paid for.

@Migael69 I hope that is helpful to you.
Click to expand...

Hey,

So I've logged two tickets with them. Firstly, how do they actually get back to you? Do they text you or is it on the site?

Then, what do you mean by you had to 'do the config again'? I've reset my device but I'm not sure what I need to config? I've tried playing around with antenna combinations and switching to the rain apn but that doesn't make much of a difference.
 
BlackAngel said:
Mark Twain said:

"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"

:giggle: :p
Click to expand...

He also suggested it is prudent to get the facts straight before you become someone's online cheerleader.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X