Rain on Wednesday launched the LoopPhone, a smartphone designed completely for its community, bundled “free to make use of” with new limitless cellular plans – the data-first operator’s most direct assault but on South Africa’s cellular incumbents.
The month-to-month plans are priced by zone: R595/month buys limitless knowledge inside a selected metropolis, R695 inside a province and R995 countrywide, all with limitless native calls and SMS nationwide. The 2 cheaper plans embody an information allocation to be used exterior the chosen zone, with top-ups at R20/GB.
Rain, a non-public firm that publishes no subscriber numbers or monetary outcomes and infrequently engages with the press, introduced the launch via paid placements in shopper media.
“Most South Africans don’t want limitless knowledge throughout the whole nation each day – they want it the place they dwell, work and join,” stated Rain CEO Conrad Leigh within the paid-for materials. “By bringing collectively our nationwide 4G and 5G community, ‘smartswitching’ and LoopPhone, we’ve created a cellular expertise designed round how individuals really use knowledge.”
The LoopPhone was developed by LoopDL, which Rain cryptically describes as its “product and design associate” – the identical branding behind the Loop, the Android-powered transportable router Rain launched in July 2025. The specs embody a 6.83-inch Amoled show plus a rear “look show” that turns the 200-megapixel important digicam right into a selfie digicam, a 7 000mAh silicon-anode battery – a chemistry solely now showing in world flagships – eSim and NFC assist, 5G standalone connectivity and Android 16 with Google’s Gemini AI in-built.
The nice print
LoopDL’s “smartswitching” software program handles the zone logic robotically: contained in the chosen limitless space, knowledge is uncapped; exterior it, the cellphone switches to per-gigabyte billing with out the person altering settings.
The handset is “free” to make use of for so long as the subscription is lively – however it stays Rain’s property. Cancel, and the cellphone have to be returned, or “Rain might lock it”, in line with the operator’s revealed phrases. Clients preferring to personal the system should purchase it outright for R7 999, which knocks R150/month off the plan worth.
There are trade-offs within the nice print that Rain’s launch supplies don’t dwell on: speeds on the limitless plans are capped at as much as 20Mbit/s, and hotspot use is excluded from the limitless allowance, billed as an alternative at R20/GB.
Tremendous happy with the crew @rainSouthAfrica who launched Limitless however inexpensive 4G/5G Cell in the present day. Plus a really cool, free-to-use smartphone. Unimaginable transformation of the floundering WBS {that a} group of us purchased in 2015.
— Michael Jordaan (@MichaelJordaan) July 8, 2026
The launch additionally upgrades Rain’s flagship convergence bundle. The brand new “rainOne limitless” combines limitless 5G dwelling Wi-Fi with a limiteless Metropolis cellular plan for R995/month, with each the operator’s 101 sensible router and a LoopPhone included.
Whether or not South Africans will embrace a high-spec cellphone they hire relatively than personal – one the operator can lock remotely, on a community whose proprietor declines to say what number of clients it has – is the experiment now beneath method. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
