Neotel plans full residential launch

South Africa’s second national operator (SNO) Neotel is to begin marketing its consumer services this week. The firm was awarded its concession in December 2005 and launched a limited range of business services in August the following year. Since then it has ramped up its corporate operations but has been waiting until its networks have wider coverage before making a push into the residential sector. A pre-commercial launch of CDMA-based fixed wireless services for consumers took place in parts of Johannesburg in Pretoria in April. Meanwhile, Neotel says it has signed up almost half of South Africa’s top 350 corporate clients in contracts worth around ZAR1.5 billion (USD205 million). The SNO’s managing director, Ajay Pandey told Reuters that the firm had so far invested more than ZAR2 billion in capital expenditure to roll out its fixed wireless and fibre-optic networks. The group expects to spend ZAR11 billion over the next ten years.