Neotel vows core offering 'this year'

By Leon Engelbrecht for Neotel
Johannesburg, 26 Sep 2007

Neotel, SA's second national operator, is close to announcing its core product offering, it says.

Spokesperson Mala Suriah says the would-be Telkom rival will make an announcement "very soon, definitely this year". She declined to provide more details.

In early August, she said the launch, then set for this month, would be the "biggest event Neotel has ever had" and would focus on what Neotel plans to offer business and consumers.

Suriah blamed the latest delay on Infraco, the new state-owned broadband infrastructure company. "It was a real show-stopper," she says.

Government's attempts to pass the Broadband Infraco Bill, which will establish the company as a legal state entity in its own right, has had a rocky passage in Parliament. During recent hearings on the Bill, one of the major issues raised was Infraco's four-year exclusivity deal with Neotel.

In November last year, executive head of strategy Angus Hay indicated the company expected to start offering domestic voice and data services to businesses in January. However, this was subsequently pushed back to mid-year.

It is expected that Neotel's product launch will include consumer services. The second national operator is doing CDMA trials for consumer voice and data services. MD Ajay Pandey previously said Neotel would launch consumer services once the trial is completed.

While no capital expenditure details are available at this stage, Neotel previously said it would spend R11 billion on infrastructure over the next 10 years. At its highest, this is expected to reach R5 billion in one year.

Preparations for the rolling out of services have included deploying national infrastructure, putting call centre facilities in place and providing staff with the necessary training. Neotel has also set up offices in Durban and Cape Town.