Telkom versus Neotel

dominic said:
the SA consumer: veering between the apathetic and the unrealistic....

as an aside it would be a good idea to treat the Neotel rep with a little courtesy and skip the sarcasm: while they clearly need to up their communication game it is great that they have a rep (I can think of one major provider they are being compared to that has never managed to get that right)
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Couldn't agree more. What the general public tend to misunderstand/refuse to understand is that its not as easy as installing a DSTV dish and you have a network. There are thousands of things to prepare before switching on a basestation and microwave/fibre to backhaul it. HAVE PATIENCE, they are working on it. They have to, otherwise the shareholders will be more than pissed off....
 
I agree, to come out the starting blocks undercutting Telkom is a huge achievement in itself. Yes, coverage seems to be the sticking point but if you were the ceo wouldnt you want instant blanket coverage over the whole of SA aswell? You have to believe that they are working on it.
I think the media is mostly to blame for the unrealistic expectations. I dont think neotel ever promised a price revolution like we were all hoping for... it was the writers in the media proclaiming the second coming of the messiah all the time.
Looking at the comparison I think 20-30% saving is definitely achievable. Which is actually excellent for such a new company.
 
Question;

I call Neotel today and request to take the Neotel Prime Unlimited whatever for R999.

What other costs will I be paying?
 
zamicro said:
Looking at this I am not sure I will subscribe to Neotel for voice purposes...
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Be honest... if the prices were even half that would most of us be "wow i need to run to the shops and get a neotel phone". most of us just dont need a land line for voice calls.

the funny part is that we actually need to get off our lazy butts and start supporting neotel if we want to see the prices come down to what we want.
 
It would be interesting to see the next set of rate filings with ICASA...

Telkom willl have to ensure it is no longer to call a Telkom number from Neotel...

And Neotel would have to anticipate Telkom's moves and drop their rates as well.

Neoflex voice is a dead duck to me as long as there is no SIP/IAX2 device at the same cost as the current deal.
 
its one thing making money, but they killing us, were else in the world do you pay R3500 for a 128kb Diginet.

we have **** service, slow speeds and high prices.

there are lots of places in this world that have free internet and free local calls.

did you know that when you send a sms on a cellular network, it cost them like 1 cents to send it, and they bill us like 80 cents.

so telkom make R8.172 billion profit a year,

Milk us dry
 
Neotel was my great hope of finally giving Telkom the finger, but because my suburb is not deemed important, I am forced to crawl back to the beast for some more prison love. Thanks Neotel.

I do understand that you are just starting out, and all that. Your coverage map "correction" of a few weeks ago, placed my reception from almost (within 100m) to no chance (probably 2km) in one fell swoop. Great, so no coverage for at least the next year (not unreasonable since not VC nor iBurst think my little dark corner is worth the effort either).

All these articles and advertisements about Neotel, does nothing to create excitement from me, rather the opposite.
 
Neotel said:
NeoFlex Voice is available currently across large parts of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban, with coverage growing weekly. If you check coverage on our web site, you'll find that it is shown with the same coverage as NeoConnect Lite (our standalone home phone device), since it makes use of the same technology (CDMA2000 1X), and is more extensive than our current high speed Internet (CDMA2000 1xEV-DO) coverage. If you haven't already checked or contacted us, it's advisable to check regularly.

People often forget to do a full per month cost comparison. You'll note that all Neotel billing is per second. We estimate that this represents an additional 20-30% saving over and above the comparison between the price list figures you see, as many of our customers are finding.
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When is neotel coming to Sunward Park, boksburg? Are there any plans or is it another wait and see?
 
What is Neotel's equivalent to Telkom's "Closer" plans? If you use the landline to any extent, as my family do, average call costs become considerably lower than those given in the table.
 
Neotel is full of the .99 sales tactic (where 699 sounds better than 700). Basically they calculate their profit and then round it up to the nearest 99. Like installation R399, neoflex R699 etc, rental R99. This is a clear indication that vaseline is applied to any price. Who cares about a 5c saving on a telephone call, It means I would have to make a very large number of calls before it even becomes viable.
 
We now have NeoTel coverage so I have a few questions. Hopefully the NeoTel representative can answer them:

1) Can one use the voice and data at the same time on NeoConnect Prime?
2) When will there be support for a LAN port on NeoConnect Prime as we have 2 PC's at the house and I am not going to pay for 2 contracts.
3) Does the NeoFlex Data option (R699 for 10GB) support incoming connections. i.e. Can I forward a specific port onto a machine?
4) Is there any way I can trial this out before signing a contract? We have two places (office and house) and I would like to test the damn thing before cancelling ADSL lines (will probably keep a 512K line open as a backup).
 
I'm assuming that this, like all Neotel products to date, requires a 2 year contract, which you can cancel at anytime, as long as you pay the device cost.
At roughly R75/month for the device, over the 2 years, that's R1800.
A basic telephone handset costs less than R200. When is Neotel going to come out with a device that's worth it and doesn't cost a fortune?

The rest of their call pricing is nice, unfortunately, like 90% of SA, I no longer use a landline and this means nothing to me.
 
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