Rain is in trouble for misleading claims about download speed

There are some things that connect the people of South Africa better than anything else. Some might say that rugby tops that list. Others may insist that the load shedding schedule is a shared solidarity of hard work. Yet I propose that there are two things that bring identity that I share most of all: hating telcos and complaining about rain.

For now let’s focus on that second one because telcom evergreen hate, rain is still new. The first ISP in the country to specialize only in wireless connections is the lightning rod of disgruntled customers, which is inferior in the service it provides. It has now been taken to a level Advertising Regulatory Board Is forcing the company to change misleading advertising.

The complaint was first filed by Suwasin Moodley, a Rain user who suffers from the strong disconnect and poor speed experienced by everyone using a Rain SIM at some point. Citing a complaint file submitted to ARB, Moody submitted that the statement was misleading for the following reasons:

• Unlimited data 24/7: The line is constantly dropping and unavailable 24/7.
• Your network speed is selected – not selected. There is a lot of line variability.
• Your streaming quality choice – no choice. The line is very poor.

The statements in question (pictured below) describe the above features as possible with rain and from personal experience, I can confirm that they are only half the time accurate.

Now without going into all the secondary issues and complaints, ARB has made a decision based on two main pillars of this case: the first promotes 5M connections with download speeds of 200Mbps and an “unlimited data 24/7” average.

Referring to the 200mbp / s line speed, ARB states that “the advertiser must have documentary evidence to support these claims with objective subtraction capability. In its response
The complaint, although the advertiser provided clarity on its product offerings, did not provide evidence to support speed or quality claims. More specifically, there is nothing to show that the advertiser is actually delivering the claimed performance. ”It’s a big OOF for rain, right there.

Now, the “unlimited data 24/7” claim is a bit far-fetched, as ARB claims that the words used in the ad can be understood in two ways. “This means that data is unlimited at all times and, therefore, when data is limited and charged per gig. Alternatively, unlimited data is always available to the user without interruption. Although the advertiser inspired the first comment, the second did not.” Judged to be careless.

All this means is that ads around Rhine’s 5G service should be removed from public view and edited before they can be shown again. Considering the effort and budget going into a full-fledged marketing campaign, this could be a very big loss for the rain. It remains to be seen how long the turnover time for the new marketing campaign will be, hopefully, a little more accurate.