Rain suspends fixed-LTE sales ‘until further notice’

South Africa’s newest mobile network operator, Rain, appears to be having some serious teething troubles. It has “temporarily suspended” the sale of fixed-wireless 4G/LTE products through its partner Internet service providers to “better manage capacity” on its network.

TechCentral learnt on Monday that the partner ISPs have been told that they must suspend new sales of fixed-LTE services due to capacity constraints on the Rain network. According to correspondence seen by TechCentral, the companies may continue to “provision new activations” until 31 October 2018.

Rain CEO Willem Roos said via e-mail that the operator has suspended sales through ISPs until further notice.

The company sells fixed LTE to ISPs through Internet Solutions, a division of Dimension Data. ISPs that have launched fixed-wireless broadband products on the back of the Rain network include Webafrica, Axxess, M-Web, Vox Telecom and Afrihost.

“Due to the strong sales of our fixed-LTE offerings, together with the successful launch of our mobile products, we need to manage capacity on our network in order to ensure that all our current customers continue to receive a great experience,” Roos told TechCentral.

“As you know, we are still building out our network, and as we continue to roll out towers to increase both coverage and capacity, we will reconsider the situation.”

The decision comes after reports emerged in recent weeks of connectivity issues affecting the Rain network. Vodacom also uses Rain for additional 4G capacity through a roaming agreement, though Roos didn’t specifically comment on the impact of this arrangement on the company’s network capacity and performance.

He said the temporary suspension does not affect the sale of its mobile products, which Rain does itself directly via its website. Existing fixed-wireless customers will not be affected by the decision and they can continue to use the network, he added.  — © 2018 NewsCentral Media