Rain's big fall from grace - Here is what happened

[Ipwn 4]

I wonder if wireless spectrum issues, IPC or backhaul capacity issues. Perhaps a combination of all three sometimes?

Its pretty simple actually, legacy Iburst business model: build network with X capacity, sell 10X and pray that FTTH doesn't get rolled out in the areas you cover.

 

[azbob]

Yeah... The Rain/MyBB "relationship" I find very perplexing (and disturbing).

Oh well.

 

[stroudmw]

When it works, it works well. But its unreliability means that you never know when that will be.

 

[boboudts]

I have snails in my garden that are faster!

 

[skeptic_SA]

/Rain Rep: Please PM me the email adress related to your query and I will escalate the issue.

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

Translation? Punctuation? Grammar?

What language is that?

 

[supersunbird]

What language is that?

The language of someone that will get employed by rain for customer support.

 

[Geoff.D]

I wonder if wireless spectrum issues, IPC or backhaul capacity issues. Perhaps a combination of all three sometimes?

The key driver is oversubscription and service demand.
It will always be a combination of wireless capacity and back haul capacity, with maybe one dominating over the other at times. A speed test can't separate out the effects.
Then, the connection method of the device to the network will also play a role.

 

[dotcat]

I've complained numerous times, cancelled numerous times. I run a speedtest once a month to see if it has been addressed - still 1 up and 1 down if you lucky. They had the guts to suspend the sale of their products once but chickened out the second time round. Why not do a capacity check like Telkom do before they sell you the 1TB product? That way you dont pay for a product they know will not work.

 

[My_King]

The issue I have is the constant complaints on MyBB.

Does RAIN not have their own support platform?

Yes yes, I know - the rep comes on here "Please PM me the email adress related to your query and I will escalate the issue."

All other ISPs have a ticket system

 

[Mzanzi_Kleva]

Over subscription.

Over Subscription + Insufficient Re-Investment..

 

[Geoff.D]

Over Subscription + Insufficient Re-Investment..

You forget basic network design. That is the key. You cannot fix a flawed network design with more investment.

 

[supersunbird]

The issue I have is the constant complaints on MyBB.

Does RAIN not have their own support platform?

Yes yes, I know - the rep comes on here "Please PM me the email adress related to your query and I will escalate the issue."

All other ISPs have a ticket system

They do, clearly understaffed and severely overwhelmed.

 

[THE ONLY SUPERFLY]

Rain is a Pyramid scheme.....

 

[charlieharper]

Let's be honest...

If they sold the same 4G unlimited product (but say 24/7 usage, not that weird 11pm - 6pm) and instead of being R250, it was R1250, towers probably would've been 5x less congested, they would've had far better customer service (because 5x less customers), needed far less staff and probably could've been a bit more profitable and scale accordingly to ensure quality remains constant.
(Just napkin math, take with a pinch of salt, but same concept)

Economically, that's how it should be, considering the demand (thousands of users) is way higher than supply (that one poor little tower) in most areas.

From a budget consumer point of view, it's great that it's cheap and perhaps have a bit of something you didn't have at all prior, so props to Rain for entering that market.... but from a business model point of view, it doesn't make sense / it almost becomes unethical to overpopulate towers like that.

It's kinda like selling 8000 tickets to a concert with only 5000 seats, but promising everyone seats.

 

[Moosedrool]

I get 400 mbps down and around 60 mbps up with the R999 package.

I tested my signal properly before purchasing and understood that going into a service with new 5g bandwidth screams of similar sorts of that old Telkom LTE project.
I actually mounted the outdoor unit outside and not conceal it in a brick room and moan on mybb that the 5g signal is shyte.

I don't work for rain. I just don't want to pay more for my speeds.

 

[We Love Bass]

Its part of business, they can still rise again.

 

[Swa]

Roos is full of it, similar comments were made about 4G before it went down the drain, 5G is showing similar signs.

Interesting to see that mybb has left the rain fan club after going out of there way just the other day to park next to towers for a fluff piece. Rain pull advertising maybe?

It's funny how that "4G that went down the drain" is still 10Mbps and the "5G that's showing similar signs" is >100Mbps. It seems that because people got used to wireless being super fast compared to adsl this should stay that way. They forget that not long ago 4Mbps was still the "fibre standard". Really the speeds on Rain isn't bad for what they offer.

Let's be honest...

If they sold the same 4G unlimited product (but say 24/7 usage, not that weird 11pm - 6pm) and instead of being R250, it was R1250, towers probably would've been 5x less congested, they would've had far better customer service (because 5x less customers), needed far less staff and probably could've been a bit more profitable and scale accordingly to ensure quality remains constant.
(Just napkin math, take with a pinch of salt, but same concept)

Economically, that's how it should be, considering the demand (thousands of users) is way higher than supply (that one poor little tower) in most areas.

From a budget consumer point of view, it's great that it's cheap and perhaps have a bit of something you didn't have at all prior, so props to Rain for entering that market.... but from a business model point of view, it doesn't make sense / it almost becomes unethical to overpopulate towers like that.

It's kinda like selling 8000 tickets to a concert with only 5000 seats, but promising everyone seats.

While we are honest... why should everything fit the same mold? Why can't we also have a range of options like in other countries that make it less expensive? I agree with Willem here, the focus is and should be on affordable data and not speed. I am far more happy with something that can give me a few hundred GB for R250 than paying R300 for 50GB I may or may not use. Rain's only problem was to also advertise speed so it created an expectation of that being a minimum that will be delivered when that wasn't the intention.

 

[Geoff.D]

It's funny how that "4G that went down the drain" is still 10Mbps and the "5G that's showing similar signs" is >100Mbps. It seems that because people got used to wireless being super fast compared to adsl this should stay that way. They forget that not long ago 4Mbps was still the "fibre standard". Really the speeds on Rain isn't bad for what they offer.


While we are honest... why should everything fit the same mold? Why can't we also have a range of options like in other countries that make it less expensive? I agree with Willem here, the focus is and should be on affordable data and not speed. I am far more happy with something that can give me a few hundred GB for R250 than paying R300 for 50GB I may or may not use. Rain's only problem was to also advertise speed so it created an expectation of that being a minimum that will be delivered when that wasn't the intention.

Yes, the hang up everyone has with data rate and speed tests is BS.
The far bigger issue is inconsistent and unreliable performance.

 

[jbroo]

It's kinda like selling 8000 tickets to a concert with only 5000 seats, but promising everyone seats.

This.

My tower is congested. I can only presume that everyone else on the tower also gets1-2mbps download during most of the day. Note the 20+downoad speeds at night. I guess this congestion is not fixable? Sadly, there are no other good LTE offers and no fibre or DSL where I live. Don't get me wrong, rain definitely fulfils a niche. I would just be happier if I got 6-8mbps when it's at its worst.