By: Matthew Hill
Published: 22 May 08 - 16:56
South Africa’s first fixed-line telecommunications competitor to Telkom, Neotel, on Thursday launched its first consumer product, which is based on a device that offers text messaging, high-speed Internet, and, of course voice calls.Neotel consumer business unit executive head Mukul Sharma said that the technology was a world-first, and offered “crystal clear” voice quality, as well as true broadband Internet.

The name of the company’s debut consumer product is NeoConnect Prime, which ranges in price from R399/month to R999/month, offering connectivity speeds of up to 2,4 MBPS, but which averaged at from 300 KBPS to 700 KBPS.

The R999/month option offered uncapped “eat as much as you want for a fixed price” connectivity, Sharma said.

Then, Neotel had also launched a more affordable option – NeoConnect Lite – which had a slower Internet connection.

Sharma said that although all of its contracts ran for the South African standard two years, customers had the opportunity to opt out at any stage, but would have to pay for the device.

The cost of the device stood at just over R2 000, but was built into the contract at some R89/month, and customers cancelling would have to pay for the balance of the device, calculated by how many months remained in the contract multiplied by R89.

Neotel have been at this for a little while now. It’s been years in the making, and they finally announce some info regarding the launch of their service. At first glance it looks like a fairly competitive product.

My main concern is what service delivery is going to be like, and what the public expectation is going to be. Most people have a very fairytale expectation. The SNO is going to come as a knight in shining armor, and save us all from this dragon called Telkom!

What if they SNO is just another dragon in a suite of shiny armor? Once the armor is pealed away what are we going to discover?

I read a few articles a few years ago, where people were interviewed, and asked, that given the opportunity, would they switch to an alternative to Telkom? 70% of the people interviewed said they would switch on principal.
I’d like to see what sort of publicity they get, once the rubber hits the road.