Neotel issues FTTH clarification

South Africa’s second national operator (SNO) Neotel has explained that the 40Mbps ‘NeoBroadband’ fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services currently being offered to residents in the Maboneng precinct are not ‘final Neotel NeoBroadband products’, but rather a trial to assess consumer sentiment. MyBroadband.co.za quotes a company spokesperson as saying: ‘This is a trial with Maboneng Broadband to test customer uptake and usage and to test working with third party fibre providers. This is a trial to validate and prove the model. There are no decisions and no plans have been made yet’. The website adds that the confusion was enhanced when regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) cited the service’s price – ZAR329 (USD32.3) per month for a 20GB 40Mbps subscription – as a benchmark for what South Africans should be paying for high speed internet access.