South Africa’s Rain moves into the 4G mobile voice space

As promised earlier this year, South African operator Rain is no longer a data-only service provider. It is now part of the country’s highly competitive mobile network space, joining Vodacom, MTN and Telkom with a network offering national voice, SMS and data coverage.

Rain has in fact launched a new 4G mobile network with high-definition voice calls (using VoLTE), data, SMS and national 4G mobile coverage. The company already offers data-only 5G – in fact it was the country’s first entrant into the 5G market.

Bringing together a national 4G mobile network and its extensive data-only 5G network, Rain says it is now combining home and phone into one plan, through which customers can connect all their devices with one monthly bill.

The plan, branded rainOne, includes unlimited 5G home Wi-Fi, plus free monthly calls and data for two phones, each with 2GB of free data and 60 minutes of free, high-definition voice calls every month— without any long-term contracts. 

Customers with rainOne can seamlessly port their existing number and use Rain mobile as their primary SIM, with national 4G mobile coverage. 5G customers of Rain can upgrade to rainOne for the same price as their current plans and benefit from mobile SIMs and free monthly calls and data for two phones at no extra cost.

Given that the company is entering a competitive market, it’s worth noting the words of its CEO Brandon Leigh, quoted in the South African press. He says: “Now customers have another option for mobile services from a provider that has already established a strong reputation in the home internet market. The expansion of Rain’s network, in terms of 5G coverage and spectrum acquisition, indicates that we are serious about being a major player in the mobile market as well.”

Rain certainly seems confident. Of course, the company has been in the home internet market since 2018 – and a 5G provider since 2019. Today it covers over 7 million households.