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Neotel

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Neotel (Pty) Ltd.
Company typePrivate company[1]
IndustryCommunications Services
FoundedJohannesburg, South Africa, 2006
HeadquartersWoodmead, South Africa
Key people
Ajay Pandey, Managing Director
Websitewww.neotel.co.za

Neotel (Pty) Ltd., previously SNO Telecommunications, is the much anticipated second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 2006-08-31 in Kyalami in northern Johannesburg. Neotel is South Africa's first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal, Telkom.

The new company announced its business services on 2007-11-15 and its consumer services in May 2008. Its business services include local and international leased line services, as well as a suite of voice, data (VPN), and Internet offerings delivered over its converged, next-generation network [2]. International Transit services for wholesale customers have been available since September 2006[3][4]. They plan to use wireless broadband technologies, amongst others, which not only allows data transfers but also voice in the form of VOIP[5].

The arrival of a competitor is said to bring competitive pricing in terms of high speed internet (avg. 250 Kb/s to 750 Kb/s CDMA2000), broadband through WiMax, and later high speed broadband (xDSL and Fiber).[6][7] For many years South Africa has had only one telecommunications service, Telkom, which is partly government owned and partly private owned, but now for the first time people will have a choice of telecommunication services.

History

In 2001, an amendment to the Telecommunications Act was made that allowed for the creation of a competitor to South Africa's largest telecommunications operator, Telkom[8]. The initial shareholders of the Second National Operator (SNO) were identified as Eskom and Transnet[9]. In early 2002, bidding started for the remaining stakes in the SNO[10]. The Shareholder's agreement was signed on 15 August 2005[11]. Following the signing, the licence terms and conditions were finalized in March 2006, and the company officially launched in August 2006[12].

Current Consortium

Neotel currently consists of the following consortiums:[13]

Initial holdings by Eskom Holdings (15%) and Transtel, a division of Transnet (15%) sold to Tata Communications of India raising their stake from 26% to 56%, making them the majority shareholder within Neotel.

Products

Neotel launched their consumer products in 2008.

NeoConnect

NeoConnect is a EV-DO based service and is available in two primary versions. All versions include a phone that includes support for Short Message Service (SMS) and voice calls. NeoConnect Lite is a low speed (up to 156 kbps) internet connectivity product. It has data cap options ranging between 2 GB and unlimited. NeoConnect Prime is a medium to high speed (up to 2.4 Mbps) product with data caps of between 2.5 GB and unlimited.[14]

Limitations

  • Neotel's products are currently only available in limited areas
  • The phone only has a USB connection and does not provide a connection compatible with devices meant to connect to phone lines, such as fax machines.[15]
  • Latency is variable, making the connection unsuitable for online gaming, VoIP and other jitter sensitive applications.

See also

References

  1. ^ ""Neotel FAQ"". Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  2. ^ "Neotel website". Retrieved 2007-11-15.
  3. ^ Stones Leslie (2006-09-01). ""Neotel gives Telkom taste of competition"". Businessday. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Bouzaglou, Hila and I-Net Bridge (2006-08-31). ""Say hello to Neotel, SA's second national operator"". Mail & Guardian Online. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ "Neotel website". Retrieved 2006-09-25.
  6. ^ MyADSL (2006-09-07). ""Neotel: 'Telecoms prices should be 25% of what it is now'"". Retrieved 2006-09-25.
  7. ^ MyBroadband (2007-07-10). ""Neotel Broadband - xDSL and Fibre on the cards"". Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  8. ^ Loxton, Lynda and Reuters (2001-11-17). ""Telecoms bill passed but SNO cloud hangs"". Business Report. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ ITWeb (2000-08-11). ""Transtel, Eskom will be Telkom competition, says Radebe"". Retrieved 2006-09-25.
  10. ^ Wet, Phillip de (2002-05-27). ""ITA sets SNO bidders to work"". ITWeb. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ Roux, Helene Le (2006-08-25). ""Second network operation to launch this month"". Creamer Media's Engineering News. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Mackenzie, Jackie (2006-08-31). ""The SNO is finally here"". business.iafrica.com. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ "About the shareholders". Neotel. Retrieved 2007-07-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ "Compare Packages". Neotel (Pty) Ltd. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
  15. ^ Neotel (2008-07-13). "Neotel NeoConnect FAQ - Technical". MyBroadband.co.za. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
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