Neotel explains NeoFlex pricing

[Kawak]

Neotel is obviously not listening to us.

1. rev0 revA doesn't sounds different to us at all until you can realize the speeds of 2.4mbps on rev0 and then 3.1 on revA so stop the BS

2. we don't care what the new device is all so cool about, firstly the prime device was a failure which neotel committed and want us consumers to foot the bill, I mean come on, a "converged" device that doesn't allow internet and phone to be used at the same time??? wow!

3. again, pls justify how when you take away 120 minutes of telkom calls + 1000 minutes of neotel calls and come to a price that is R100 more expensive? oh and pls refer to point one before you start with BS

4. I cannot stress this point enough, pls, we are consumers, not dumb asses, when neotel want to lie to us at least hire someone to write their speech so it doesn't sound and smell like BS the minute it leaves their mouth.

the evolution of neotel:

Nevertel => Nevertel => Neohope => NeoHotair => NeoBS

no idea where it goes from here.

 

[ic]

The reason Neohell wants 24 month contracts is so that when the price of broadband does eventually drop they will be able to carry on charging their current rates which might seem low now but will be exhorbitant in 12 months time.

So basically NeoGhost wants to copycat WBS and its iBurst service where a price decrease does not get passed onto existing customers, if it's true then NeoGhost is just as bad as WBS is.

What the public wants is something vaguely approaching the product offered overseas, vis a vis speed, cap and cost.

I don't know about everyone else, but I would be happy if NeoGhost tried to emulate the flexibility of ADSL from Telkodemonopolies without the line rental [considering that there is no line with NeoGhost's wireless service, so there should be no monthly "line" rental fee].

Perhaps NeoGhost thinks it is running a wired last mile service and feels it can charge the same as Telkodemonopolies does for copper...

ADSL allows me to choose from many different [competitive reseller] ISPs with many different bandwidth options - including pre-paid, I can buy my own router from many different retail outlets. Downsides to ADSL are the double line rental and the fact that shaped costs more than unshaped.

 

[Milano]

NEOTEL - HISTORY

For a new and young operator in the South African telecommunications sector, Neotel has come a long way. The managed liberalisation of the industry started with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. However, it was not until the Telecommunications Amendment Act of 2001 that the new national operator became a real possibility and an end to the monopoly in the South African fixed-line telecommunication market was in sight.

State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Transnet and Eskom, were identified in the Amendment Act as shareholders in the new operator. Following the confirmation of this participation in November 2001, a dedicated team of experts in Transtel (formerly the telecommunications division of Transnet, now a subsidiary of Neotel) and Eskom Telecommunications began construction of a joint national network designed to challenge the dominance of the incumbent. This early decision is today making it possible for Neotel to prepare for the launch of its first national services rapidly, with a reach that will extend to all of the major centres. The SOE - infrastructure provides Neotel with the backbone of a leading-edge telecommunications network, built along the railways and power lines that span the country.

The process of identifying the remaining shareholders began in earnest in early 2002. A public bidding process resulted in Nexus Connexion, a broad-based empowerment consortium, being awarded the stake as the BEE shareholder in mid-2002.

An initial round of bidding for a 51% Strategic Equity Partner (SEP) did not produce a winner, and the Minister of Communications revised the process. In the next round of bidding CommuniTel and Two Consortium were each awarded a 12.5% stake.

The Minister invited bids for the remaining shareholding (nominally 26%) in September 2004. Tata (Africa) Holdings (Pty) Limited, part of the Tata Group of India, submitted a preliminary Expression of Interest on 22 September 2004 on behalf of Tata Communications in India followed by a binding offer in January 2005. Based on the detailed business plan submitted by Tata Communications, the Minister of Communications confirmed the Tata Group as the holder of the remaining Strategic Equity Partner shareholding on 13 February 2005.

The entry of the Tata Group of India, through Tata Communications, marked an important step for the new operator, confirming its status as a serious player in the South African market, with the backing of a major international telecommunications player.

Armed with the Minister's decision, the shareholders completed and signed the Shareholders Agreement on 15th August 2005, having already submitted a joint business plan to ICASA. The licence terms and conditions were successfully negotiated in November 2005, and the company - PSTS licence as the new national operator was issued on 9 December 2005. The company subsequently obtained a Value Added Network Services (VANS) Licence in March 2006.
http://www.neotel.co.za/neotel/view/neotel/en/page127

After all that, is this the result? Is this what we waited for?

 

[chubster]

I can only laugh at their explanation and the customers' comments. To think we were all fooled into thinking Neotel would actually be better than Telkom. What a douche.

 

[Moederloos]

5 months???!?!!!?!?!! .... wanna trade? I have been waiting for just over 13 months now, appreantly i will be waiting another 3. I wonder if that is some kind of record?

I waited 18 months. Telkom told me the exchange did not support ADSL all that time - despite the previous owner of my house having had ADSL.....

Took 18 months to convince them.

 

[Tns]

sorry neofail you lost.

 

[Moederloos]

At first I thought the people saying their coverage changes were looking at the map wrong - there are options for different packages.

BUT. I go and look now, and I was not covered last week for NeoFlex and today I am covered. My neighbours down the road were covered last week, and this week they are not.

So, the coverage seems to change hourly - NeoTel must be making use of mobile base stations.

 

[FaNIX]

lol, Neotel can suck my b@lls, I will never support them Good luck to those who do!

 

[Moederloos]

NeoBurst.

 

[nictron]

sorry but again i must disagree, first of all y quote telkom 4mbps prices? u're only getting (according to neotel) 450-900kbps speed, and with latency on wireless being high already unshaped doesn't really do so much for us anyways.

and remember with telkom u also must remove the line rental charge since with neoflex you don't have the phone option at all.

I understand, but you can't separate the Telkom ADSL and Line rental, they are forced upon you. If you go for ADSL 1024 then it is automatically upgraded to 4mbps if your exchange is supported, not all people in the country can get the 4Mbps service. I don't agree with Neotel I am just saying that compared to Telkom's pricing the comparison is in their favour.

Maybe Neotel's curse is the fact that Telkom raised the bar so high with their ridiculous costing that the business people at Neotel think they have a good deal but comparing yourself to Telkom is just wrong, they must rather compare themselves with the more affordable ISP's in the developing world.

We have a long way to go, I still pay through my nose for my Internet, I am one of those people that just needs the speed, I do not use P2P downloading so my bill is never higher than R750, but R750 for 3GB of monthly unshaped usage is just ridiculous. But I need the line for business and pleasure so there is nothing I can do except every time I see a Neotel or Telkom representative I complain about the ridiculous pricing and I also vote with my pocket at work by switching as soon as a the price lowers, that way I tell the ISP's my objection and in time the price must come down.

 

[saffakanera]

I say wait for SEACOM, bitching about pricing at the moment is pretty pointless considering we have a second cable comming in July, guys relax and cheer up, the scenario is better than it was way back when MyBB started out!

 

[Maverick_Nick]

I think that people whom are willing to pay these ridiculous prices are just being suckered into being ripped off. If our data caps don't go up to at least 250GB when seacom comes around then I've got no hope.

 

[2CentsWorth]

Neotel pointed out that the two NeoFlex packages presented to the market were a direct response to what users wanted.

So what company did the market research?

 

[Moederloos]

So what company did the market research?

Question 1:
Do you want a 10GB package at R699 or a 10GB package at R2000?

Question 2:
Do you want a 15GB package at R899 or a 15GB package at R4000?



Survey complete.

 

[schurtek]

Waiting for Seacom...

You do know the Neotel is the SA incumbant for Seacom?

 

[kilobits]

Question 1:
Do you want a 10GB package at R699 or a 10GB package at R2000?

Question 2:
Do you want a 15GB package at R899 or a 15GB package at R4000?



Survey complete.

+1 !

 

[schurtek]

Firstly let me say...

Loose the 2 year contract... I don't want to be forced to business with a company because I signed a piece of paper. I want to do business with a company because they are good to do business with.

Secondly, what about uncapped/fix ip address options? How are you suppose to compare to ADSL when you still stuck with limited options.

Plus, we need USB stick like 3G for mobile laptop use. I don't want to have to cart big phones/routers and extension cords with me!

And what about pay per use? Some people don't need 10GB, they may need 2GB this month, 12GB next month.

Local Only options and VPN options??? Hello NeoHel wake up and smell the roses... you are upsetting the apple cart.

 

[Juice]

NeoTel must be making use of mobile base stations.

Bwahahaha!! Funniest thing I read all morning...

 

[Johand]

I say wait for SEACOM, bitching about pricing at the moment is pretty pointless considering we have a second cable comming in July, guys relax and cheer up, the scenario is better than it was way back when MyBB started out!

Things were suppose to change in 2004 already. We are 5 years into when market liberation was promised to us. Look at the Neotel products in that light - this is what 5 years looks like. Can anybody be happy with that?

They can say what they want about hold-ups etc, but surely these people had to had decent business plans way-back-when already. They had plenty of time to tweak them. The Neotel consumer launch can't possibly be the incarnation of serious competition.

It is obvious that Neotel don't want the consumer market. I wonder what their license conditions are...because if they have targets as part of the conditions (and I think they have), they are not going to reach the targets, and THEY KNOW IT. Remember - they are not a VANS nor an iBurst, they have some serious obligations as part of their license.

I wonder whether ICASA can revoke their license when they don't reach their targets, or whether they will pay a token fine and continue business as usual. Neotel obviously doesn't seem willing to spend capital required on consumers, and has taken a cherry picking attitude towards deploying services.

 

[schurtek]

Things were suppose to change in 2004 already. We are 5 years into when market liberation was promised to us. Look at the Neotel products in that light - this is what 5 years looks like. Can anybody be happy with that?

They can say what they want about hold-ups etc, but surely these people had to had decent business plans way-back-when already. They had plenty of time to tweak them. The Neotel consumer launch can't possibly be the incarnation of serious competition.

It is obvious that Neotel don't want the consumer market. I wonder what their license conditions are...because if they have targets as part of the conditions (and I think they have), they are not going to reach the targets, and THEY KNOW IT. Remember - they are not a VANS nor an iBurst, they have some serious obligations as part of their license.

I wonder whether ICASA can revoke their license when they don't reach their targets, or whether they will pay a token fine and continue business as usual. Neotel obviously doesn't seem willing to spend capital required on consumers, and has taken a cherry picking attitude towards deploying services.

Seriously... Neotel has become a big joke... initially, Telkom was instructed to provide access to their network for Neotel, but Neotel said no thank you, and to that I salute them.

Neotel has taken five years to roll out the first service. They could have gone pure wireless to begin, faster deployment, but instead they opted to go the fibre route, and for what? A crappy bundle of services that are sub-par...

We approached Neotel to provide a fibre link between two locations for our clients, and they said no... that we can only have the NeoConenct or NeoFlex. I don't want that crap. I just want a pair of fibres going from point a to point b... Telkom can offer it, though they charge the earth...

NeoTel are playing with dinky cars at a monster truck showdown... and sadly they will be crushed by the competition.

24 months may not be so bad, but after that you have to connect for 12month contracts, and if you read the fine print, they can change the price and you have no choice, so start paying R199 today, and in 12 months time you could be locked at R599.

What? You can't pay... sorry, then go to jail.

In a country where most are up to their eyeballs in debt, NeoTel sounds like a good choice...