Slow Rain Fixed LTE speeds (Afrihost)

So about 3 weeks ago, Rain did some optimisations and it drastically improved my service, so I held off from cancelling...

It was good again, like 24/7... however for the past week's its been terrible again.

It's non-existent during the day, tested at 0.05mbps this afternoon...

In the evenings it's mostly very good, at 15-30mbps.
 
ronald911 said:
Been having an absolute nightmare of an experience on the Rain network the last 2 months.

I've been a Rain (via Afrihost) customer since August 2018. I pay R1349/m for 220gb, but combined with rollover / peak + offpeak data, I get around 600gb data to use.

For the first year and a half it's been fantastic. Speeds were constantly over 15-20mbps up and down. No complaints.

However since December it's like service quality deteriorated over night. And I'm talking seriously bad.

View attachment 782966

Out of like 14 speed tests this month, only 3 of them are over 4 mbps... And I'm not saying 4mbps is fast, I just feel 4mbps is the minimum speed I can work with without completely ruining the whole experience - and I mean, it's 4G, not a 4mbps DSL line.

(Note, upload speeds are mostly fine - issues are with the download speed)

[Mid December 2019]
I contacted Afrihost to see if they can sort it out for me. They couldn't do much and asked me to fill in a form to deal with Rain, called the Rain degradation form, with details such as my router, sim card number etc.

Nothing much happened.

I've been sending out multiple emails over the last few weeks and spoke to multiple support agents, both through Afrihost who provides me with this connection, as well as Rain directly, since I'm obviously on the Rain network. All fruitless so far.

As a techie, I always do research and want to (at least try to) solve problems myself and a forum thread (over at MyBroadband) showed if I set my LTE band frequency on the router to 2600mhz instead of the default 1800mhz it's running on speed might be more stable - but apparently our tower doesn't support 2600mhz, so back to 1800mhz. My gut feeling says, congestion and I mentioned it over email.

Eventually Afrihost said I should sign up for an MTN or Telkom sim card and sent me a link - but I think it's utterly ridiculous service that I should be going through that effort of signing up for a new service + buy a new router if going the MTN route. Such BS. I told them if anything, I came to you with a problem and if switching networks is the only thing you can do, I expect you to do that for me.

I then started dealing with Rain directly again... because, after all - I'm on the Rain network.

I started DM'ing Rain related people on Twitter and a person who I believe is a director at Rain replied with an email address of someone who's might be able to help. Using the formula of the contact person, "[email protected]", I took a lucky guess and successfully managed to CC Michael into the conversation, hoping he could get more managers involved to take a look at it and resolve it asap.

Once again I had to send them my router brand + model as well as the sim card number.

After about 5 emails I did get an email from the person I CC'd at Rain this morning saying, "Please may I ask to be dropped from these mails?". Clearly doesn't want to get involved, a bit impolite don't you think?

View attachment 783144

But anyway, the guys at Rain promised me they are on it and I will continue to stay on top of them till I get a final answer where they can restore the quality of service I used to have or not.

Will keep you updated as it happens.

Also, worth noting, I'm well over 25 emails in since December. This excludes DM's over twitter.
Click to expand...
Hi Ronald, I'm really sorry about your terrible ordeal. Can you advise what the latest update with your Rain connection?
 
ronald911 said:
So about 3 weeks ago, Rain did some optimisations and it drastically improved my service, so I held off from cancelling...

It was good again, like 24/7... however for the past week's its been terrible again.

It's non-existent during the day, tested at 0.05mbps this afternoon...

In the evenings it's mostly very good, at 15-30mbps.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry that the issue recurred, can you send me a PM so that I can send you a degradation form for us to re-escalate this?
 
Dog slow. but i am downloading a game on steam now at 5MBS, this is my speed test result while downloading at the same time
speedtest.mybroadband.co.za

MyBroadband Speed Test

Speed test result: Latency: 24ms | Download: 14.88Mbps | Upload: 16.91Mbps | Provider: rain
speedtest.mybroadband.co.za
 
Yeah, that ping doesn't look good at all. I'd like to have one of our fibre support team members look into this so if you could drop me a PM with your clientzone email address, I'd be happy to make sure someone gets in touch with you.
 
ronald911 said:
Been having an absolute nightmare of an experience on the Rain network the last 2 months.

I've been a Rain (via Afrihost) customer since August 2018. I pay R1349/m for 220gb, but combined with rollover / peak + offpeak data, I get around 600gb data to use.

For the first year and a half it's been fantastic. Speeds were constantly over 15-20mbps up and down. No complaints.

However since December it's like service quality deteriorated over night. And I'm talking seriously bad.

View attachment 782966

Out of like 14 speed tests this month, only 3 of them are over 4 mbps... And I'm not saying 4mbps is fast, I just feel 4mbps is the minimum speed I can work with without completely ruining the whole experience - and I mean, it's 4G, not a 4mbps DSL line.

(Note, upload speeds are mostly fine - issues are with the download speed)

[Mid December 2019]
I contacted Afrihost to see if they can sort it out for me. They couldn't do much and asked me to fill in a form to deal with Rain, called the Rain degradation form, with details such as my router, sim card number etc.

Nothing much happened.

I've been sending out multiple emails over the last few weeks and spoke to multiple support agents, both through Afrihost who provides me with this connection, as well as Rain directly, since I'm obviously on the Rain network. All fruitless so far.

As a techie, I always do research and want to (at least try to) solve problems myself and a forum thread (over at MyBroadband) showed if I set my LTE band frequency on the router to 2600mhz instead of the default 1800mhz it's running on speed might be more stable - but apparently our tower doesn't support 2600mhz, so back to 1800mhz. My gut feeling says, congestion and I mentioned it over email.

Eventually Afrihost said I should sign up for an MTN or Telkom sim card and sent me a link - but I think it's utterly ridiculous service that I should be going through that effort of signing up for a new service + buy a new router if going the MTN route. Such BS. I told them if anything, I came to you with a problem and if switching networks is the only thing you can do, I expect you to do that for me.

I then started dealing with Rain directly again... because, after all - I'm on the Rain network.

I started DM'ing Rain related people on Twitter and a person who I believe is a director at Rain replied with an email address of someone who's might be able to help. Using the formula of the contact person, "[email protected]", I took a lucky guess and successfully managed to CC Michael into the conversation, hoping he could get more managers involved to take a look at it and resolve it asap.

Once again I had to send them my router brand + model as well as the sim card number.

After about 5 emails I did get an email from the person I CC'd at Rain this morning saying, "Please may I ask to be dropped from these mails?". Clearly doesn't want to get involved, a bit impolite don't you think?

View attachment 783144

But anyway, the guys at Rain promised me they are on it and I will continue to stay on top of them till I get a final answer where they can restore the quality of service I used to have or not.

Will keep you updated as it happens.

Also, worth noting, I'm well over 25 emails in since December. This excludes DM's over twitter.
Click to expand...

Hi Ronald
Your problems are identical to mine except that mine started about a month ago.


The response i received from Afrihost & Rain read as follows:
1. There appears to be issue on the RAIN network as we have been receiving numerous cals of slow access on the service
2. Our optimization team will assess and see what can be done in the medium term. Our apologies for the poor experience but we can only reassure you that we are constantly improving our network, this will be resolved once more sites are activated in this area.

Have you managed to resolve your speed issues with Rain yet?
I am considering switching to MTN as their "solution" is everything but a solution.
 
Brian2705 said:
Hi Ronald
Your problems are identical to mine except that mine started about a month ago.


The response i received from Afrihost & Rain read as follows:
1. There appears to be issue on the RAIN network as we have been receiving numerous cals of slow access on the service
2. Our optimization team will assess and see what can be done in the medium term. Our apologies for the poor experience but we can only reassure you that we are constantly improving our network, this will be resolved once more sites are activated in this area.

Have you managed to resolve your speed issues with Rain yet?
I am considering switching to MTN as their "solution" is everything but a solution.
Click to expand...

Wow, sounds like you've received a better (more detailed) response than I have.
Best I received was from Rain directly which is, "We are still investigating the issue."

Only thing Afrihost could tell me was that I should fill in a degradation form... which I did twice. But they weren't able to give me any technical feedback as to why they cannot sort out my problem.

Late last week, Afrihost came back to me with a proposal to switch to MTN or Telkom... but both packages would essentially be downgrading me as they wouldn't match the bandwidth / cap that I'm getting at the moment (220+220+rollover), even though I told them I'm still willing to pay what I'm paying now or a bit more (R1350). They couldn't offer any flexibility on their packages to accommodate me.
Screenshot 2020-04-07 at 13.31.31.png

Over the last 2 days it's been a little bit better than the last month, but like I said, it's incredibly inconsistent and perhaps, unreliable in that case.
I built a little something to keep track and automate speed tests to monitor performance.
www.rainspeedtest.co.za

rain speed tests logged on ISP Logger

Browse speed test stats for internet service provider rain speed tests logged on ISP Logger
www.rainspeedtest.co.za

On the side note, I'm pushing for FTTH to be installed in the neighbourhood for a long term solution. I've been in touch with Link Africa as they have a backhaul running through the hood.

If all else fail, I'll probably just sign up for the MTN one and cut our usage.
 
I must say that the speeds from rain are very very poor , I have been testing the last two days and in my case it gets worse every time , I am currently getting 1/10 of what I am paying for in terms of speed , I purchased a 10 meg and am getting less then 1 meg , tried to call them no response , tried emailing and I get an automated response that they will get back to me in 24 to 48 hours .

Are they allowed to advertise such figures and yet their speeds are 1/10th of the actual claim , I know it says upto 10 megs , but 1 10th is surely not acceptable
 
ronald911 said:
Wow, sounds like you've received a better (more detailed) response than I have.
Best I received was from Rain directly which is, "We are still investigating the issue."

Only thing Afrihost could tell me was that I should fill in a degradation form... which I did twice. But they weren't able to give me any technical feedback as to why they cannot sort out my problem.

Late last week, Afrihost came back to me with a proposal to switch to MTN or Telkom... but both packages would essentially be downgrading me as they wouldn't match the bandwidth / cap that I'm getting at the moment (220+220+rollover), even though I told them I'm still willing to pay what I'm paying now or a bit more (R1350). They couldn't offer any flexibility on their packages to accommodate me.
View attachment 814115

Over the last 2 days it's been a little bit better than the last month, but like I said, it's incredibly inconsistent and perhaps, unreliable in that case.
I built a little something to keep track and automate speed tests to monitor performance.
www.rainspeedtest.co.za

rain speed tests logged on ISP Logger

Browse speed test stats for internet service provider rain speed tests logged on ISP Logger
www.rainspeedtest.co.za

On the side note, I'm pushing for FTTH to be installed in the neighbourhood for a long term solution. I've been in touch with Link Africa as they have a backhaul running through the hood.

If all else fail, I'll probably just sign up for the MTN one and cut our usage.
Click to expand...
But you can get uncapped R479 from rain and MTN fixed lte(150Gb) for less than R1350 :p
 
Hi

Just received a call from the worst staff at Rain ,( Kea Mametse ) she was threatening me to cut the call and not help me , she was more concerned of compaling about my tone to her , yet she refused to progress asking me questions that made no sense , this is how rain treats its clients , she was not able to resolve the problem neither was she able to explain why the speeds are so slow
 
786ideas said:
Hi

Just received a call from the worst staff at Rain ,( Kea Mametse ) she was threatening me to cut the call and not help me , she was more concerned of compaling about my tone to her , yet she refused to progress asking me questions that made no sense , this is how rain treats its clients , she was not able to resolve the problem neither was she able to explain why the speeds are so slow
Click to expand...

I would recommend Hello Peter, but I am not sure how competent they are these days.

But I am curious what the conversation was between you and the Rain staff member.
Hopefully they mentioned that your call would be recorded for quality purposes
 
Sharkssmart1 said:
I would recommend Hello Peter, but I am not sure how competent they are these days.

But I am curious what the conversation was between you and the Rain staff member.
Hopefully they mentioned that your call would be recorded for quality purposes
Click to expand...


Yes she did advise me that the call is recorded , she was asking me question that were not relevant to my problem . I cannot understand why she would even call me as the matter was escalated to their technical department on Monday , she was just trying to be seen as helping , finally I got a call from a lady by the name off Tania , who has now once again advised that this matter needs to be escalated to their Technical department , not sure why the first escalation was not sorted out , however she assured me that she would get the matter resolved by COB today.
 
ronald911 said:
Yeah also tried that - https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...t-to-rain-band-38.991442/page-4#post-24831054

I told the guy who phoned me at Rain that I tried it (well, to switch to another frequency) but apparently the tower here only supports 1800mhz.
Click to expand...
He's probably lying, or more likely, like most of them, doesn't know what he's talking about. I tried switching to the 2300mhz band, Rain Network stops working. Their speeds are unadulterated RUBBISH - equal to 56k modem. I'm chucking them very soon. They also couldn't give a damn about clients, they don't communicate, strange for a company that's in communication business. This company, if I were a ratings agency, would be rated 'TRASH'.
chrismine said:
I have exactly the same problem. Mostly speeds after 18:00 fine. They acknowledged congestion. Mobile SIM gives about 5 Mbps download speed. Fixed LTE about. 01 Mbps..
Click to expand...
They're probably lying to you. They are a trash company who either doesn't have the decency or the knowledge to reply to problems. 56k modem speeds. Both the company and their service should be TRASH. I'm canceling within a few weeks, and won't even p"ss on them.
 
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