With Rain’s expansion into the territory of 5G Internet, it would seem that the future lies within their incredible high-speed data packages. Yet, while the service is well priced, maybe do a little research before jumping headfirst into the future.
In an effort to make the wonders of 5G just a little more accessible to everyone, Rain has revealed that they will introduce a brand new Internet plan into the fold. Named the “Standard Plan”, it will cost users R700 per month and will get them an uncapped 30mbps connection. This will replace the previous plan, which has been renamed the “Premium Plan”. Users who don’t want to spend R1,000 for the speed, might be inclined to agree that the standard package seems more than fair.
The other benefit to this plan is that users will no longer be tied into a 24-month contract and will be able to pay month-to-month for the Standard Package. Customers can immediately downgrade to the Standard Package if they feel like it’s the better option. This change will take effect today on all existing Rain accounts.
Alongside this announcement, Rain’s chief marketing officer Khaya Dlanga confirmed that the company was looking to expand its 5G coverage to both Cape Town and Durban in 2020.
Yet while the expansion of 5G coverage is an exciting prospect, many have been disappointed by Rain’s network recently. This is due to widespread outages over Rain’s 5G and 4G networks. Just glancing over Rain’s Facebook page reveals a bevy of complaints about slow or nonexistent network speeds. Users are reporting slow connections, and in some instances no connection at al. Rain has actively been responding to tweets and Facebook comments asking users for profile information, but as far as we know, that won’t have any effect on general network speeds.
“Stage 3 loadshedding announced and @RainCoZa is not working. Seems they can afford to roll out 5G but have no contingency plans for power outages. And don’t expect any response to queries. #NoRain,” writes one disgruntled user on Twitter.
“I need @rainSouthAfrica to explain 1. Why average download speed has dropped by 4mbps since last year. 2. Why is there so much congestion(with less than 500k users) 3. Why are aggressive packages still offered when clearly you can’t cope with the demand,” writes another Twitter user. While there are a smattering of positive comments, the vast majority are far more irritated than pleased with the provided service.
This isn’t the first time that Rain has suffered a hit to their connectivity as the recent spell of load shedding had a very negative impact on the ISP’s coverage. Whether or not this current string of problems is due to similar issues has yet to be confirmed.