{"id":387002,"date":"2021-02-23T20:10:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T18:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=387002"},"modified":"2021-02-24T10:43:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T08:43:56","slug":"real-world-tests-show-how-rain-throttles-vpn-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/5g\/387002-real-world-tests-show-how-rain-throttles-vpn-traffic.html","title":{"rendered":"Real-world tests show how Rain throttles VPN traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mobile network operator Rain appears to be throttling VPN usage on both its 5G packages.<\/p>\n

This is according to multiple speed tests conducted by MyBroadband following complaints of throttling on Rain’s 4G network earlier in February.<\/p>\n

Rain CEO Willem Roos previously told MyBroadband that the operator does throttle VPN usage in order to ensure its streaming quality limits are maintained.<\/p>\n

Many customers were frustrated, however, as many claimed they were required to use a VPN for work, and not to circumvent Rain’s streaming restrictions.<\/p>\n

With Rain’s 4G uncapped package, streaming resolution is limited to 360p, while the Rain 5G Standard package is capped at 720p.<\/p>\n

The Rain 5G Premium product, however, has no streaming resolution cap, so throttling on this package would seem unnecessary.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, MyBroadband’s speed tests have shown that even Rain’s top-end package is being throttled when using a VPN.<\/p>\n

Using popular paid-for VPN service Surfshark, we carried out a series of speed tests on the MyBroadband Speed Test website.<\/p>\n

Our tests found that Rain was throttling download speeds significantly.<\/p>\n

Rain 5G Premium<\/h3>\n

We first conducted 10 speed tests on Rain’s 5G Premium package – five with the Surfshark VPN off, and five with it turned on.<\/p>\n

With the VPN off we measured an average download speed of 293.81Mbps, while upload speeds averaged 11.07Mbps.<\/p>\n

Latency varied greatly, going from as low as 12ms to a high of 33ms for an average of 21.8ms across the five tests.<\/p>\n

With the VPN on and set to a South African server, download speeds dropped by more than 50%, measuring an average of 122.21Mbps.<\/p>\n

Upload speeds were not impacted as significantly, with a decrease of less than 1Mbps, likely indicating no throttling.<\/p>\n

Naturally, latency worsened, but this is to be expected when using a VPN, as the connection is routed through a server.<\/p>\n

This increases the number of hops in the data transfer process, increasing the total round trip time.<\/p>\n

The images and table below show the results we achieved for the speed tests on Rain’s 5G Premium package.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Download speed<\/th>\nUpload speed<\/th>\nLatency<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
VPN off<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
296.93Mbps<\/td>\n11.23Mbps<\/td>\n33ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
304.50Mbps<\/td>\n13.50Mbps<\/td>\n31ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
283.11Mbps<\/td>\n9.91Mbps<\/td>\n18ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
317.87Mbps<\/td>\n10.90Mbps<\/td>\n15ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
266.63Mbps<\/td>\n9.81Mbps<\/td>\n12ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
293.81Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n11.07Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n21.8ms<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VPN on<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
121.26Mbps<\/td>\n8.78Mbps<\/td>\n30ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
104.59Mbps<\/td>\n10.25Mbps<\/td>\n27ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
121.37Mbps<\/td>\n11.95Mbps<\/td>\n34ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
120.02Mbps<\/td>\n11.33Mbps<\/td>\n22ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
143.82Mbps<\/td>\n9.65Mbps<\/td>\n30ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
122.21Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n10.39Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n28.6ms<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Rain 5G Standard<\/h3>\n

We then conducted the same tests on Rain’s 5G Standard package, which the operator limits to a 30Mbps download speed cap.<\/p>\n

Interestingly Rain appears to have whitelisted MyBroadband’s Speed Test platform to show the maximum potential speed had the user been on the Premium package.<\/p>\n

This meant that our tests without the VPN showed download speeds with an average of 155.58Mbps.<\/p>\n

Upload speeds averaged at 2.85Mbps, whereas latency was around the 29ms mark.<\/p>\n

When connected to the South Africa-based VPN server, however, we recorded download speeds of only a fifth of those without the VPN, with an average of 33.10Mbps.<\/p>\n

Once again, uploads – while slower – appeared not to be impacted nearly as significantly as the downloads with an average difference of less than<\/p>\n

Interestingly, however, is that the latency was actually lower with the VPN than without it, at an average of 24.2ms for the five speed tests.<\/p>\n

The images and table below show the results we achieved for the speed tests on Rain’s 5G Premium package.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Download speed<\/th>\nUpload speed<\/th>\nLatency<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
VPN off<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
150.17Mbps<\/td>\n3.70Mbps<\/td>\n25ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
156.34Mbps<\/td>\n2.63Mbps<\/td>\n31ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
133.90Mbps<\/td>\n2.83Mbps<\/td>\n28ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
154.39Mbps<\/td>\n2.08Mbps<\/td>\n28ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
183.12Mbps<\/td>\n2.99Mbps<\/td>\n34ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
155.58Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n2.85Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n29.2ms<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VPN on<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33.76Mbps<\/td>\n3.24Mbps<\/td>\n27ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
31.96Mbps<\/td>\n1.60Mbps<\/td>\n26ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
32.79Mbps<\/td>\n3.11Mbps<\/td>\n20ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33.51Mbps<\/td>\n2.08Mbps<\/td>\n24ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33.47Mbps<\/td>\n2.44Mbps<\/td>\n24ms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33.10Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n2.49Mbps<\/strong><\/td>\n24.2ms<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

International servers<\/h3>\n

There is bad news for users looking to make use of VPNs to access the international libraries of streaming services like Netflix as well.<\/p>\n

We also connected to Surfshark servers located\u00a0in the UK and the US and once again, it appeared that Rain was throttling download speeds.<\/p>\n

On the 5G Premium package, download speeds were throttled down to between 30Mbps and 50Mbps while connected to the UK server, while the 5G Standard package dropped down to between 15-20Mbps.<\/p>\n

Connecting to a US server was far worse, however, reducing download speeds on both packages to less than 1Mbps.<\/p>\n

Now read: Supersonic Air Fibre vs Rain \u2013 Prices, speeds, and streaming compared<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real-world tests by MyBroadband show a significant decline in speeds in Rain\u2019s network when using a VPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":363864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62528],"tags":[19420,4726,35,43716],"class_list":["post-387002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5g","tag-5g","tag-data-throttling","tag-headline","tag-rain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387522,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387002\/revisions\/387522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}