Tata Africa, VSNL''s SNO consortium launches services as Neotel

04 September 2006

Johannesburg: The Tata Africa and VSNL telecom venture in South Africa, SNO, has launched fixed line services for Africa''s wholesale telecommunications market under the brand identity of Neotel.

Neotel is the new identity of the second national operator, unveiled by the company''s managing director Ajay Pandey at a prestigious event attended by minister of communications Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and minister of public enterprises Alec Erwin in Kyalami, Johannesburg.

The company has been trading temporarily under the name SNO Telecommunications, and has been known as the SNO. Neotel represents the combined telecom participation of the Tata Group through Tata Africa, its subsidiary VSNL, Telecom Namibia through Communitel, Two Consortium comprising various South African companies involved in the telecom and ICT sector, the BEE shareholder Nexus Connexion, and the telecommunications arms of state-owned enterprises Transnet and Eskom.

Neotel''s wholesale voice services include carrying international calls from mobile network operators and VANS in SA to their destination countries and handing them over to one of more than 400 international partners of Neotel for termination to the dialled number. Similarly, Neotel will carry international voice calls destined for South Africa from almost 200 countries, bringing them into SA, and handing them over to the terminating telecom operator in SA.

Pandey, who announced the planned rollout of telecommunication services based on leading-edge technologies, disclosed that Neotel had secured access to the relevant Eskom and Transnet infrastructure, including almost 10 000km of optical fibre backbone within metros and across the country and would offer a variety of fixed and wireless services.

He added "We anticipate a cumulative capital expenditure of more than R11 billion (approximately Rs8,000 crore) in the first 10 years of our operation," he added, explaining that Neotel''s strategic objectives were to become the preferred provider of leading-edge telecoms in South Africa, to reduce the cost of doing business and promote developing industries.