private company 1 traded as neotel industry communications services founded 31 august 2006 headquarters midrand johannesburg south africa area served south africa products telecommunications wireless and wireline broadband services managed services parent liquid telecom group website www.neotel.co.za neotel pty ltd. previously sno telecommunications is the second national operator sno for fixed line telecommunication services in south africa . it was unveiled on 31 august 2006 in kyalami in northern johannesburg . neotel is south africa s first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal telkom . the new company announced its business services on 15 november 2007 and its consumer services in may 2008 . its business services include local and international leased line services as well as a suite of voice data vpn and internet offerings delivered over its converged next generation network . 2 international transit services for wholesale customers have been available since september 2006 . 3 4 they plan to use wireless broadband technologies amongst others which not only allows data transfers but also voice in the form of voip . 5 the arrival of a competitor is said to bring competitive pricing in terms of high speed internet avg . 250 kbit s to 750 kbit s cdma2000 broadband through wimax and later high speed broadband xdsl and fiber . 6 7 for many years south africa had only one telecommunications service telkom which is partly government owned and partly private owned but now for the first time people will have a choice of telecommunication services . contents 1 history 2 shareholding 3 products 3.1 neoconnect 3.1.1 limitations 4 international connectivity 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit in 2001 an amendment to the telecommunications act was made that allowed for the creation of a competitor to south africa s largest telecommunications operator telkom . 8 the initial shareholders of the second national operator sno were identified as eskom and transnet . 9 in early 2002 bidding started for the remaining stakes in the sno . 10 the shareholder s agreement was signed on 15 august 2005 . 11 following the signing the licence terms and conditions were finalized in march 2006 and the company officially launched in august 2006 . 12 in may 2014 a buyout offer of zar 7 billion from cellular network vodacom was accepted by shareholders of both companies . 13 even though regulatory approval by the independent communications authority of south africa was obtained in 2015 the deal ultimately collapsed in march 2016 after competitors successfully challenged the transfer of neotel s licenses and spectrum in court . 14 15 shareholding edit neotel currently consists of the following consortium 16 initial holdings by eskom holdings 15 % transtel a division of transnet 15 % and two consortium 12.5 % sold to tata communications of india in 2009 and 2011 raising their stake from 26 % to 68.5 % making them the majority shareholder within neotel . tata communications 68.5 % ; nexus connexion bee partner 19 % ; communitel 12.5 % originally part of strategic equity partner company sepco with two consortium 12.5 % . in june 2016 tata communications announced that it had sold its stake in neotel to liquid telecom which is majority owned by econet wireless global for us 428 million . 17 products edit neotel launched their consumer products in 2008 . cloud security managed and transformation services managed utm n2 educational hub neobroadband neocarrier neocarrier last mile access neocarrier metro neocarrier nld neoconference neoconference video neocorporate onnet neofax neogo neohost colocation & managed host neohosted contact centre neointellect neointernet neo ip transit neoiru neolan neolink neolink global neomanaged pbx neometrolink neomulti site breakout neonetworks project implementation neoone host colocation & managed host neoone internet neoone last mile access neoone layer 2 neoone voice neoone vpn neopoil neopresence neo professional services neosat neosms neotransnet neovas neovoice neovoice wholesale neovpn video connect virtual host neoconnect edit neoconnect is an ev do based service and is available in two primary versions . all versions include a phone that includes support for short message service sms and voice calls . neoconnect lite is a low speed up to 156 kbit s internet connectivity product . it has data cap options ranging between 2 gb and unlimited . neoconnect prime is a medium to high speed up to 2.4 mbit s product with data caps of between 2.5 gb and unlimited . 18 limitations edit neotel s products are currently only available in limited areas johannesburg durban cape town port elizabeth and pretoria the phone only has a usb connection and does not provide a connection compatible with devices meant to connect to phone lines such as fax machines . 19 latency is variable making the connection unsuitable for online gaming voip and other jitter sensitive applications . international connectivity edit as a wholesale telecommunications provider and to support its own services neotel is involved in a number of submarine communications cables that will increase south africa s international connectivity between 2009 and 2011 . currently prior to june 2009 neotel offers international services that make use of sat 3 and safe . 20 it manages the landing station in south africa for seacom 21 which was commissioned for operation on 23 july 2009 and is a participant in eassy 22 and wacs . 23 see also edit hellkom myadsl telkom south africa wacs references edit neotel faq . archived from the original on 2006 09 24 . retrieved 2006 10 01 . neotel website . archived from the original on 2007 10 14 . retrieved 2007 11 15 . stones leslie 2006 09 01 . neotel gives telkom taste of competition . businessday . archived from the original on 29 september 2007 . retrieved 2006 09 25 . bouzaglou hila and i net bridge 2006 08 31 . say hello to neotel sa s second national operator . mail & guardian online . retrieved 2006 09 25 . neotel website . archived from the original on 24 september 2006 . retrieved 2006 09 25 . myadsl 2006 09 07 . neotel telecoms prices should be 25 % of what it is now . retrieved 2006 09 25 . mybroadband 2007 07 10 . neotel broadband xdsl and fibre on the cards . retrieved 2007 07 11 . loxton lynda and reuters 2001 11 17 . telecoms bill passed but sno cloud hangs . business report . retrieved 2006 09 25 . itweb 2000 08 11 . transtel eskom will be telkom competition says radebe . retrieved 2006 09 25 . wet phillip de 2002 05 27 . ita sets sno bidders to work . itweb . retrieved 2006 09 25 . roux helene le 2006 08 25 . second network operation to launch this month . creamer media s engineering news . archived from the original on 2006 09 04 . retrieved 2006 09 25 . mackenzie jackie 2006 08 31 . the sno is finally here . business.iafrica.com . retrieved 2006 09 25 . vodacom to buy neotel for r7bn companies iol business . iol.co.za . 2014 05 19 . retrieved 2014 06 02 . vodacom abandons bid to buy neotel . retrieved 2016 08 16 . vodacom neotel merger deal collapses . retrieved 2016 08 16 . about the shareholders . neotel . archived from the original on 2007 06 30 . retrieved 2007 07 12 . tata communications to sell african subsidiary neotel for 428 million the economic times . retrieved 2016 07 26 . compare packages . neotel pty ltd. archived from the original on 2008 08 22 . retrieved 2008 10 12 . neotel 2008 07 13 . neotel neoconnect faq technical . mybroadband.co.za . retrieved 2008 10 12 . neolink global . archived from the original on 1 february 2009 . retrieved 2009 04 12 . tata communications named seacom anchor tenant . retrieved 2009 04 12 . eassy website . archived from the original on 14 october 2008 . retrieved 2009 04 11 . deployment phase of the west africa cable system underway . retrieved 2009 04 12 . dead link external links edit official website neotel forum neotel vs telkom call charges v t e south african telecommunication companies licensed landline companies neotel telkom sa mobile phone companies cell c mtn virgin mobile vodacom telkom mobile me & you mobile fnb connect mrp mobile major internet service providers internet solutions mweb vox telecom retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title neotel & oldid 738419942 categories telecommunications companies of south africaprivately held companiescompanies established in 2006hidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from october 2010use dmy dates from august 2012use south african english from august 2012all wikipedia articles written in south african englishpages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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