South Africa’s fourth-largest cellular network provider Rain has delayed the launch of its mobile 5G service from 2025 to 2026.
Rain was the first mobile network provider to offer the latest generation of cellular connectivity, with its uncapped fixed-5G Premium plan for R999, launched in late 2019.
Over the following years, it gradually expanded the offering with more affordable uncapped products with lower speeds and grew its fixed-5G network coverage to cover millions of households.
Fixed-5G can only be used in a single location at a time and requires a router, which Rain provides free-to-use as long as the customer has a subscription.
Earlier this year, Rain launched a portable 5G router for customers who wanted flexibility in the location of their uncapped service.
Rain’s 5G network is still not accessible on smartphones or mobile devices. Since it introduced 5G to the country, three of the country’s cellular network providers have launched mobile 5G.
Vodacom became the first operator in the country to roll out a mobile 5G network in May 2020. A month thereafter, MTN followed.
Several MVNOs that piggyback on MTN’s network support 5G connectivity, including Afrihost Air Mobile and Melon Mobile.
Telkom rolled out fixed-5G services in October 2022 and, a few months later, mobile 5G connectivity. Cell C still has no 5G services, but no longer operates its own radio equipment or tower infrastructure.
Cell C relies on wholesale agreements with MTN and Vodacom for its radio access network capacity and has said that it is close to rolling out 5G support in partnership with them.
In its last feedback in October 2024, Rain told MyBroadband it planned to launch mobile 5G services sometime in 2025.
A year later, the company confirmed to MyBroadband that it had adjusted the launch timeline to 2026.
Rain explained this was because of its focus on accelerating the development and accessibility of the 5G Advanced Standalone device ecosystem.
Rain’s 5G mobile service has been in the pipeline for many years. Its largest shareholder — African Rainbow Capital — previously said Rain would launch mobile 5G within a year from September 2022.
However, in March 2023, Rain co-founder and director Michael Jordaan told PSG Think Big that the initial focus will be a countrywide mobile 4G service.
Jordaan later apologised for pre-empting the launch of Rain’s mobile network in a post on X, which he subsequently deleted.
Rain rolled out its fully-fledged mobile 4G network in May 2023, offering support for conventional calling and SMS for the first time since its data-only network launch in 2018.
However, the operator initially required customers to have one of its fixed-5G packages to get a mobile 4G SIM.
By linking the two products together, its mobile 4G service was less attractive to customers who already have a reliable fixed connection like fibre-to-the-home (FTTH).
When Rain launched standalone mobile 4G products, its pricing was not competitive with similar products from Vodacom, MTN, AirMobile, and Telkom.
Rain made a name for itself as an innovator with affordable mobile data plans, initially starting with capped 4G sold through third-party Internet service providers (ISPs) before rolling out uncapped 4G.
Its fixed-5G services were the first mobile broadband products supporting uncapped data at speeds and latencies comparable to FTTH.
However, the bigger networks have caught up on many fronts, including by offering more affordable fixed-4G and fixed-5G products, directly and through third-party ISPs.
With the delay in launching mobile 5G connectivity, it has also fallen behind some smaller MVNOs.
Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/5g/615215-rain-mobile-5g-launch-delayed.html
