The Neotel slap in the face

Ben Kelly

Ben Kelly is a columnist at MyBroadband, and writes about basically anything in the tech world which he finds interesting. He is also a...

Full Profile

E-mail

I am not entirely sure what is going on with Neotel. On the one hand the company is quietly moving some of its high-end consumers over to its Wimax network, but at the same time it has discontinued its high-end Neoflex data products choosing only to offer the 5GB version of the product.

Now I am a relatively happy 15GB Neoflex user, and have been for the past 18 months, but I am starting to worry that Neotel simply does not want my business anymore.

For the longest time my biggest gripe with Neotel has been price. Charging R60/GB (R899/15=R59.90) for the best priced Neoflex product at a time when ADSL prices have fallen through the floor, with prices starting at around R20 for a GB of data means that we are paying around R600 (on the 15GB Neoflex service) for the pleasure of having a connection to the Neotel network.

Let’s do the maths on this. If I get a Telkom line I pay R133/month. Throw in a 4Mbps ADSL service (bought from Telkom, not as part of a bundle) and this would cost me R413. Total cost so far = R553.

Now what we need to do is add in the cost of the bandwidth. Depending on where you shop you can get bandwidth as cheap as R20/GB, and because Neotel is a first tier service provider I reckon it should be held to the lowest price available.

That means that for high end Neoflex users we are paying more than it would cost to have a 4Mbps ADSL line and after we go over our cap we are getting smacked for bandwidth at R80/GB.

And to add insult to injury we don’t even exist on Neotel’s price list anymore. At the very least I would have expected a mail from Neotel telling us what our status is, are they going to downgrade my account to a 5GB account? Will they allow the full 24 months to pass before they pull the rug out from under us? Will we be allowed to languish in obscurity knowing that our service provider doesn’t give a crap whether we live or die as long as the debit order doesn’t bounce?

The one thing that we can be sure of is that any hopes for a price cut have been well and truly dashed.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. We only need to look at how long it took Neotel to roll out the data usage email system to see that it is about as interested in the consumer market as I am in the career of Justin Bieber.

And then to add further insult to injury I noted that for the amount of money I am paying right now to Neotel I could go down to a Cell C store and buy three modems and 5GB packages and get access to their shiny new HSPA network (I refuse to call it 4G) for roughly the same price as I am paying Neotel today. I would need to find someone to finance the R9 000 required up front but if you have the cash lying around at least Cell C seem interested in our business. Neotel, on the other hand only seem interested in taking our cash and treating us like yesterday’s breakfast. Feels like Telkom all over again.

I used to say that I am Neotel’s only happy customer. I won’t be saying that anymore.

The Neotel slap in the face << Comments and views

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not represent those of MyBroadband.