charlieharper
Expert Member
Rain only support 1800mhz and 2600mhz though.
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Slow Rain Fixed LTE speeds (Afrihost)
- Thread starter charlieharper
- Start date
Rain only support 1800mhz and 2600mhz though.
I have been advised by Rain that due to the number of users in my area that are connecting to the same tower as me the tower is overloaded , this is also increased due to more people working from home . Which I understand and agree too , however I am getting less then 1 meg and I have paid for a 10 meg speed , yes the traffic will slow the speeds down , however I would say I should get speeds of about 6 to 5 megs , worst case 4 megs , but less then 1 meg is crazy , which means that rain's towers will result in a loss off 99% speed when the traffic on the tower is at max , for me this has been 95% of the day , surely they are aware of this and they have stats to show that their towers are not handling the load , if that is the case why sell more sim's , just advise clients that their area is now full to capacity . However I don't think that in my area we have more than 50 rain users .
Im of the opinion that Rain does not have its own Towers. they use Cell C towers,see my two screen shots
That is my Rain 5G routers connection! Why does it show Cell C?
That is the tower my Cell C cellphone connects to!
The only difference is the TAC by 1 digit at the end and
eNB difference by 3 digits,
Is this the same tower?
That is my Rain 5G routers connection! Why does it show Cell C?
That is the tower my Cell C cellphone connects to!
The only difference is the TAC by 1 digit at the end and
eNB difference by 3 digits,
Is this the same tower?
charlieharper
Expert Member
Super bad growth planning from Rain in my opinion.
It was so great when they just launched as a little startup. I got great speeds (20-30mbps) consistently for about 2 years.
But I think things changed when they got bigger investment rounds and was said to grow quickly - which made them introduce the R250 package.... For VC's (Venture Capitalists) it's often all about how many customers (and market share) you can get, and not necessarily your net revenue. And they will happily do that at a loss. Why else do you think no other ISP that provides 4G are competing with their R250 uncapped package?
A few days ago, just for the hell of it and maybe to have as backup, I ordered a prepaid Rain sim card. It arrived this morning, I put it directly into the drawer, not gonna use it anytime soon.. It didn't cost me anything. TINSTAAFL - Obviously covered by their investors.
However, let's be real - If Rain perhaps made their uncapped package R1000 per month instead of R250, it would solve a lot of problems.
In theory that would mean,
1) 4 times less customers. Less support demands. 4x less congestion on the network.
2) Should the price increase 4x, but most customers decide to stay, they now have 4x higher revenue they can use to upgrade their networks.
I think the cheap uncapped and free sim card delivery is great as it brings in a LOT of customers, but it also creates a support burden and put strain on their towers and decrease the experience for customers overall. And I assume the towers aren't being upgraded as they aren't making enough to reinvest into upgrading the already overloaded towers.
But having such a large user base, does increase the companies overall valuation even if they aren't really profiting. I think Rain might just be in the same category as some of these Silicone Valley companies, where they are valued billions, but not necessarily turning big profits.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tec...ons-unprofitable-tesla-uber-snap-2019-11?IR=T
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@ronald911 I feel you man 
My experience has been the exact same for the last 4 months or so. I've tried everything from resetting my router multiple times, moving it from room to room with no improvement whatsoever. After reading this whole thread about your ordeal, I've made the decision to cancel my RAIN product with Afrihost as I don't see any improvements anytime soon. Luckily, I've recently pre-ordered fibre due to be installed in the next few months. In the interim I've been using my Telkom sim to do the basics.
Just for curiosity, have you perhaps tested the MTN and Telkom offering via Afrihost? Would greatly appreciate your feedback.
My experience has been the exact same for the last 4 months or so. I've tried everything from resetting my router multiple times, moving it from room to room with no improvement whatsoever. After reading this whole thread about your ordeal, I've made the decision to cancel my RAIN product with Afrihost as I don't see any improvements anytime soon. Luckily, I've recently pre-ordered fibre due to be installed in the next few months. In the interim I've been using my Telkom sim to do the basics.Just for curiosity, have you perhaps tested the MTN and Telkom offering via Afrihost? Would greatly appreciate your feedback.
charlieharper
Expert Member
@ronald911 I feel you man
Just for curiosity, have you perhaps tested the MTN and Telkom offering via Afrihost? Would greatly appreciate your feedback.
I'm getting an MTN sim + router from Afrihost I think Monday or Tuesday. Will let you know
charlieharper
Expert Member
I got a response from his co-founder Michael Jordaan, but after a while he told me straight he doesn't have anything to do with management. Fair.
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I canceled both mobile SIM and fixed LTE SIM. In disgust. Was a happy customer.
oooops, not liking this much. I am also experiencing speed issues. Have been very happy for the last couple of years until last week. Having tried 8 different router configurations with an average 3.06 download speed. Question is how does one resolve this whilst we are under lock down?
Also with Afrihost
Also with Afrihost
charlieharper
Expert Member
How's your speeds after 6pm?
For the few last month, during the day it's mostly very bad.... ranging from extremely slow, but working to completely unusable, that I have to tether from my phone's LTE just to get some work done. Between 6pm and 11pm however it's how it should be. My theory is most R250 uncapped Rain users switch off their routers at 6pm to avoid extra data costs.
But overall, it's just became incredibly inconsistent and unreliable - which is utterly unacceptable.
Afrihost kinda gave up dealing with Rain and is sending me a new MTN Sim card and router today. Not ideal data wise, as we've been spoiled with the 220+220+rollover, but don't have other options really.
When I tried to deal with Rain directly, they told me they don't deal with Afrihost clients, despite being on the Rain network.
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Interesting feedback. I am on the 55GB deal from Oct 2017. Wife and I can both work, browse the net etc however the speeds do not allow for good streaming of Netflix OR Showmax. In fact Showmax will freeze right before the end of a movie, frustratingly. I have found I must Chromecast it from my tablet to finish the movie - LOL!! My DSTV decoder and Netflix box is connected to the router with cables whereas my tablet (in fact two tablets, two phones and three computers) is on the wifi. I am busy with Afrihost customer care and they have asked for HEAP of information to escalate it to rain, so lets see what happens. I have also asked them for alternate product offerings. Fingers crossed.
NEW rain???? What is this?
charlieharper
Expert Member
your 'k' key broken mate?
Hi ronald911, I am not able to pick up that ticket ID, are you still waiting for feedback? How is your experience now?
Hi Brian2705, this is correct and unfortunately there's no ETA on this. Can you please check via this link if you have MTN fixed LTE coverage http://bit.ly/2OR9RJo.
I really can't confirm that, I don't believe RAIN has made it public who their backbone is. Is there a reason why you need to confirm this?