South African telecom provider Rain has launched Loop, a new portable 5G router that boasts smartphone-like functionality. This innovative device comes paired with new unlimited 5G packages priced at R475 and R675 per month.
Read: Bandwidth Blog & Smile 90.4FM Tech Tuesday: Oakley Meta Smart Glasses!
Loop features an integrated touchscreen, stereo speakers, a camera, and an Android-based operating system, allowing users to install their favourite music and social media apps directly onto the device. Rain enthusiastically declared, “With the Loop, you can carry your Wi-Fi with you, and take stereo music everywhere… It’s not just a portable 5G router and stereo speakers. It’s a loop. The first of its kind. The beginning of an exciting new category.”
Alongside the unique hardware, Loop introduces a new type of data package featuring “Loopzones.” These include “Unli Loopzones” and “Open Loopzones,” both offering unlimited data when the subscriber is within the designated zone. Outside of a Loopzone, customers are billed per gigabyte.
An Unli Loopzone provides unlimited data at a location of the subscriber’s choice. This location can be changed multiple times within the first 7 days after purchase and once per calendar month thereafter. An Openzone, on the other hand, is a Rain-designated area freely accessible to all customers, regardless of their chosen plan.
The base Loop Pergig package costs R475 per month, offering 25GB of data but no bundled Unli Loopzones. Alternatively, the Loop Unlizones product, priced at R695 per month, includes 10GB of data and one Unli Loopzone. Subscribers to the Loop Unlizones plan can purchase up to two additional user-designated Loopzones for unlimited data.
Rain highlights the Loop’s dual SIMs and “smartswitching” technology, allowing users to “only have to pay for unlimited in the places you use the most data.”
The new packages include a free-to-use Loop device, which must be returned to Rain if the subscriber cancels their service. Failure to return the device within seven calendar days can result in a late return fee of R2,500 per month and potentially a replacement fee equal to the Loop’s retail value.
As an alternative, customers can purchase the Loop outright for R5,999. This reduces the monthly fees to R250 for the Loop Pergig package and R450 for the Loop Unlizones service.
See also
Loop is a product of RainX, a 5G hardware research and development company established in 2023 by several of Rain’s co-founders. The creation of RainX stems from challenges Rain faced with 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) development, particularly after the 2019 US trade war with China impacted the progress and cost of customer-premises equipment (CPE). While 5G smartphone prices declined, CPEs remained expensive and lacked similar advancements.
Rain realized that a neutral entity was needed to overcome these supply chain issues and drive down CPE costs. After failing to find a suitable partner, Rain initially developed and launched its own 5G router, the 101, in 2023. However, Rain CEO Brandon Leigh acknowledged that ongoing hardware development was a “distraction” from Rain South Africa’s core mission of providing affordable broadband connectivity.
This led to the establishment of RainX, incorporated in Singapore, with Rain co-founders Willem Roos, Roger Grobler, and Brandon Leigh as directors. While Leigh declined to disclose the initial investment, he indicated future funding rounds are likely. RainX’s global ambition is to scale and sell high-quality 5G FWA products worldwide, with Rain South Africa being just one customer. They’ve partnered with MediaTek to develop high-quality routers.
Singapore was chosen for its logistical advantages, being closer to chipmakers and component manufacturers, and serving as a “neutral” base amidst global trade uncertainties, particularly between China and the US.
