Pioneering South African operator Rain, which launched a 5G service late last year, has now launched a new payment product, called the Standard Plan, which offers subscribers an uncapped 30Mbps service for R699 (about $44.75) per month.
According to South African press reports, the new, cheaper uncapped 5G product no longer requires customers to enter into a 24-month contract. Customers can now have access to the Rain 5G network on a month-to-month basis. They also get a free-to-use 5G router so long as their 5G account is paid up.
This change automatically applies to anyone who may have already signed up as a contract user during the past few months. The operator’s existing 5G package – which offers speeds of over 200Mbps – is now called the Premium Plan.
Rain launched its commercial 5G service in November of 2019, offering subscribers unlimited data at speeds of up to 700Mbps for R1,000 per month.
Since launch Rain has doubled its 5G coverage; this was achieved by adding more sites and providing a new 5G router to users. Rain is planning to expand its 5G coverage to Cape Town and Durban in 2020.
South African press reports have generally welcomed the new pricing strategy, although one or two have highlighted outages to both Rain’s 5G and 4G networks and mentioned some online user complaints about slow connections.