200Mbps fibre vs Rain and Vodacom 5G

Vodacom recently launched its 5G network in South Africa, offering high-speed low-latency connectivity in selected areas.

Vodacom also launched fixed-wireless 5G packages which offer high-speed, fibre-like Internet connections for your home.

This places the mobile operator in direct competition with Rain, which launched uncapped fixed-wireless 5G packages last year.

There are a number of key differences between Rain and Vodacom’s products, however, ranging from their data allowances to their billing options.

Capped vs uncapped

Rain offers two 5G products to customers – Unlimited Standard and Unlimited Premium.

Both of these are uncapped 5G packages, with the Standard product’s speed limited to 30Mbps and a video streaming resolution cap of 720p.

Unlike Rain, whose packages are available on a month-to-month basis, Vodacom’s packages are available as 24 or 36-month contracts.

Additionally, they have a monthly data cap of anytime and night-time data.

Rain bundles a Huawei 5G All-Scenario CPE N5368X with its packages – a router which is built to be used outdoors – while Vodacom offers users one of two router options to users:

• Huawei 5G CPE Pro
• Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway

In terms of speed, Vodacom offers download speeds of 150Mbps-200Mbps, while Rain offers “over 200Mbps”.

Neither operator provides upload speed details for their connections, although testing by MyBroadband found that Vodacom and Rain 5G products offer upload speeds of around 15Mbps and 20Mbps, respectively.

Uncapped fibre vs 5G

These 5G packages best serve as a primary home Internet connection, which means they will compete with fibre packages from local ISPs.

TO see how they stack up, we compared the price, data caps, and connection speeds of Vodacom and Rain’s 5G products with 200Mbps fibre connections in the market.

Openserve was selected as the fibre network operator, as it offers asymmetrical download and upload speeds – as is the case with the 5G products.

Additionally, the Vodacom packages included in this comparison are those which come with the Huawei 5G CPE Pro. Customers can also choose to purchase packages bundled with a Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway at a slightly lower lower price.

It is also important to note that many fibre networks and ISPs in South Africa have doubled their customers’ line speeds in response to the COVID-19 lockdown – although this is not applicable to Openserve fibre lines faster than 40Mbps.

The prices of Vodacom and Rain 5G products compared to 200Mbps uncapped fibre packages in South Africa is shown below.

Pricing comparison

Now read: Why SEACOM launched a consumer ISP