Neotel will launch their pilot services soon and have invited MyBroadband.co.za to form part of this trial. Neotel informed MyBroadband that their pilot service will be available in July this year, following the live internal testing of the network, scheduled for later this month.

“The pilot service will offer converged high-speed Internet access and voice services over a single device, although some pilot customers will also be requested to test low-speed Internet and voice-only services,” Neotel said.

These pilot services will be delivered over Neotel’s CDMA2000 1x EV-DO network, allowing initially for peak speeds of 2.4 Mbps (with average customer experience ranging from 200 to 500 kbps for the high-speed Internet offering).

“We have already received a large number of requests for participation in the pilot services, and unfortunately will be unable to accommodate all the requests received. Nevertheless, we will be happy to include 5 pilot participants selected and nominated by MyBroadband.co.za from amongst its members,” Neotel told MyBroadband.

These nominated participants will be in addition to any members who may be selected for the pilot through Neotel’s independent selection process.

“We will contact MyBroadband.co.za with a detailed pilot map in July to ensure that MyBroadband.co.za can select its nominees for the pilot services from within the pilot area. Neotel will select the other participants for the pilot by end of June based on the requests for participations received until then, and will send out its communication inviting the selected pilot in early July,” Neotel said.

Neotel is also planning for their ‘true broadband’ services to be delivered over WiMax the latter stages of 2007.