SA's Rain expands into mobile voice services

South African telecoms company, Rain, is expanding into a "full mobile network operator" and will now be offering voice services on its network.

The company, which previously focused on the home Internet market and data-only services for mobile, is launching a new 4G mobile network with high-definition voice calls, data, SMS and national 4G mobile coverage.

"This has now positioned Rain to enter the market as a full mobile network operator, thus becoming the fourth telco after Vodacom, MTN and Telkom, with a network that offers national coverage in voice, SMS and data," Rain said in a statement.

"After acquiring spectrum in the 2022 auction, Rain is overlaying its existing 4G network with a new layer that provides for more comprehensive reach," the company continued.

The operator's major shareholder, African Rainbow Capital (ARC), first shared plans for the expansion in March 2023 as part of its interim financial results presentation.

Rain was South Africa's first network to launch 5G back in February 2019.

Rain's plan to combine home and phone

Rain said that with its national 4G mobile network and extensive 5G network, it is now "combining home and phone" into one plan, branded RainOne.

"Now customers can connect all their devices with one monthly bill. Customers with RainOne will be able to seamlessly port their existing number and use Rain Mobile as their primary SIM, with national 4G mobile coverage," the telco explained.

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 for R559 (US$30.55) month-to-month, without long-term contracts.

"The convergence of a home and mobile voice and data offerings in one affordable plan is an innovation we are confident will appeal to South Africans. We recognize that our customers have family members, and with RainOne, we are catering not only for their need to access the Internet from home but also outside on their mobile devices," said Rain CEO Brandon Leigh.

South African MVNO market

Rain's expanded services will compete with traditional operators and South Africa's growing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market.

In April 2023, new player Melon Mobile launched its commercial operations in South Africa.

That launch came after South African bank Capitec launched its own MVNO service called Capitec Connect in September 2022, promising data that does not expire.

Rain is launching a new 4G mobile network with high-definition voice calls, data, SMS and national 4G mobile coverage. (Source: Rain)

There are numerous other local MVNO brands linked to retailers and other businesses that run off the Cell C network including me&you Mobile, Mr P Mobile, Sakeng Mobile and K'nect Mobile, to name just a few.

Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile South Africa closed its MVNO doors in 2021 after 15 years in the country.

According to statistics from Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa, SA's biggest operator, Vodacom, had almost 51.8 million mobile users in the first quarter of 2023.

MTN had about 36.9 million customers, Telkom South Africa had 19 million and Cell C had 13.1 million users.

Rain is privately owned and doesn't publish subscriber numbers but said its 5G network now covers over 7 million households after expanding from metros to smaller towns and regions.

Rain merger failure

Recently, Rain was in the news over a failed merger attempt with fellow mobile network Telkom South Africa.

In October 2022, Rain sent Telkom a non-binding proposal suggesting that Telkom acquire Rain and the two merge to "create a credible third player" to compete in South Africa's telecoms sector. However, Telkom called off discussions in January 2023.

Pan-African operator MTN had also been interested in buying Telkom, but it walked away from talks in October 2022.

*Top image source: Image by senivpetro on Freepik.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa