Flexible and scalable solutions - SA business finally gets the choice it needs

Neotel, South Africa's first converged communications network operator, has announced its suite of products for the enterprise, bringing new choice and leading-edge technology to corporates and government in this country. Neotel has built an advanced fibre optic network that links locations in metropolitan areas to provide "Next Generation Network" services, bringing more value at lower cost.

"The shop is open," says Ajay Pandey, MD of Neotel, "It's been a year since we launched as an operating company, and we have been working flat out laying cables, installing equipment and setting up agreements that gives us a national fibre network. We now have physical layer access to over 10,000km of fibre optic cable, and built a set of high-performance services that are uniquely flexible."

The enterprise product suite includes next-generation IP-based services. NeoVPN, a Virtual Private Network, gives security and privacy equivalent to a private network, but at a dramatically lower cost and complexity. NeoVPN is an SA-first in that it provides a completely flat, transparent, end-to-end secure IP network. NeoVoice provides fixed multi-line voice connectivity with allocated public numbering (with portability from Telkom numbers if required), and for the first time SA customers can get conventional Primary Rate (ISDN) or IP-based SIP telephony from one provider. NeoInternet provides high-performance corporate Internet access, and for the first time ever Neotel brings the Tier 1 global Internet into South Africa - its Point of Presence in Johannesburg provides one-hop access to global networks.

Neotel also provides traditional telecoms leased line services with its NeoLink and NeoLink Global products. NeoLink Global is unique in South Africa as Neotel customers connect on-net directly to international destinations via VSNL's global network.

A major technology leap that Neotel is bringing to market is providing wide-area telecoms connections using Ethernet interfaces - the simple, low-cost, high speed interface that's entirely familiar to anyone in networking. Apart from convenience, it also scales in convenient increments from 2Mbps to 1Gbps, in 2Mbps increments, rather than traditional TDM networks where you have to go in jumps of 2 to 34, to 45, to 155Mbps and then its multiples. Neotel can also scale bandwidth up or down as customers require without interrupting service, to cater for growth or peak business periods. Ethernet interfaces are available on all Neotel products, including NeoVoice.

"We have brought these products to market incredibly quickly - from launch to full service offering in only a year. When we launched in August last year we were ambitious in our roll-out - we have now established services in the major locations, and the roll-out is continuing in phases, adding Points of Presence all the time. We are trialling consumer services at the moment for voice and high speed Internet access, and once we're satisfied that it's ready for launch, we will make an announcement in early 2008," added Pandey.

Neotel's biggest value to its customers is its commitment to responding to their business needs. The 24/7 contact centre and network operations centre have extremely experienced technical staff, with dedicated account and service managers to ensure that customers are taken care of. Neotel is already providing services to an impressive list of blue-chip customers.

Neotel's shareholders bring together vast global and local telecoms experience, and established relationships and infrastructure. Shareholders include the Tata Group of India, Transnet, Eskom, Nexus Connection, Communitel and Two Consortium. Neotel has built a proudly South African business where, together with its Black Economic Empowerment partner, Nexus Connection, it represents a broad constituency that allows the company to contribute to building a stronger nation and bridge the digital divide.

About Neotel
Neotel is South Africa's first converged communications network operator. It provides a range of value-added voice and data services for businesses, wholesale network operators and providers as well as consumers using its pure-IP Next Generation Network, powered by Neotel's high-performance fibre optic backbone. Neotel connects the major centres in South Africa to each other and to the world, directly linking the country into VSNL's global Tier 1 network. Neotel offers fresh thinking, a creative approach and flexible solutions for communications in South Africa.