Rain or Rain (Pty) Ltd is a South African

mobile communications Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the l ...

company, providing

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

messaging A message is a discrete unit of communication intended by the source for consumption by some recipient or group of recipients. A message may be delivered by various means, including courier, telegraphy, carrier pigeon and electronic bus. A ...

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...

and converged services.

History

Rain launched in February 2019, and began providing data only services using 3000 of their own

cell towers A cell site, cell tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed (typically on a radio mast, tower, or other raised structure) to create a cell, or adjac ...

and leasing infrastructure from

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include n ...

and MTN. In June 2020, rain announced the addition of 1500 5G standalone towers to be launched in 2021

Technology

Rain offers data-only mobile network services in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. They provide 4G and LTE services through a partnership to use

and MTNs infrastructure. It launched The first Standalone 5G (3600) network in the country. Powered by

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

. Rain’s Standalone 5G is currently available in major metropolitan areas around the country.

Controversies

Ban Claiming “Unlimited Data 24/7 on 5G”

In August 2020, the advertising appeal committee of the advertising regulatory bureau banned rain from claiming unlimited 5G 24/7 after receiving multiple complaints from the public

Spectrum Arrangements

in October 2021, Telkom has approached

Independent Communications Authority of South Africa The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the ICASA Act to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the publ ...

(

ICASA The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the ICASA Act to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the publ ...

) to report spectrum arrangements between competitors

and Rain. Telkom argues Vodacom’s ability to control Rain’s spectrum entrenches its position as a dominant player in a highly concentrated market. An investigation is still underway.

Ownership

References

External links

* Mobile phone companies of South Africa Telecommunications companies established in 2018 Companies based in Johannesburg {{SouthAfrica-telecom-company-stub