Global Courant 2023-05-06 13:50:33
Image: MyBroadBand
On Thursday, Rain confirmed their signing agreement with telecom giant Vodacom to launch a national 4G mobile service called Rain Mobile. The network service will have a voice service.
Rain said it is aiming to become a more full-service telecommunications provider. Previously, Rain services only included smartphone data services and wireless services.
Speaking to TechCentral, the telecom company said it is building its own network infrastructure, working with Vodacom to address “coverage gaps” mainly outside South Africa’s cities and towns, and will offer eSIM in its product development.
In an interview with TechCentral, Rain’s spokesperson said, “As you will recall, we participated in the spectrum auction last year for the specific purpose of acquiring sub-1GHz spectrum, which would allow us to establish a national coverage layer.”
“We successfully acquired 20 MHz of the 700 MHz spectrum, which we are now using to roll out our 700 MHz network on top of our existing network,” the spokeswoman continued.
“However, in certain regions of the country, our network rollout has been delayed due to the conversion of TV from analog to digital. To address these coverage gaps, we have entered into a roaming agreement with Vodacom. This enables us to provide coverage in the areas where our network has yet to be deployed.”
Meet RainOne
Rain said, “Customers with rainOne can seamlessly port their existing number and use Rain Mobile as their primary Sim, with national 4G mobile coverage.”
Rain CEO, Brandon Leigh said in a statement: “The convergence of home and mobile voice and data offerings into one affordable plan is an innovation that we are confident will appeal to South Africans. We recognize that our customers have family members, so with rainOne we not only meet their need to access the internet at home, but also on their mobile devices when they are away from home.”
RainOne offers an unlimited 5G home Wi-Fi package and 4G service plus free monthly calls and data for two phones, a 4G service for two mobile phones with 2GB of data each and 60 minutes of voice calls for R559 per month.
