Neotel bags loans to fund first phase of rollout

South Africa’s second national operator Neotel has raised loans totalling ZAR2 billion (USD283 million) to help finance its network rollout. The firm says the loans are part of its wider quest to raise ZAR8.5 billion in funding. Business Day reports that the initial financing will be provided over an eighteen month period by a number of financial institutions, including Nedbank Capital, Investec Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation. Neotel already has access to a 1,300km national fibre network which it acquired from Transnet earlier this year. The telco has launched its first services for corporate and carrier customers but wider scale business and residential services are not expected to be available until the second quarter of next year.