zamicro
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Question of the Day: Most interesting or lesser-known inventions by South Africans?
What went wrong with Neotel
- Thread starter tinman
- Start date
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LazyLion
King of de Jungle
I seriously doubt that. The residential market is small and offers low margins so if Telkom wanted protection it wouldn't be there.
Neotel's problem was lack of focus with foolish projects and uncontrolled spending as the result.
Eish, I did not post the original article. Secondly the original poster of the article was going on about copper and telephone poles etc.
I give up, what you say is spot on, Neotel can roll out a nationwide copper & fiber network to every single home & business at a cost the business can recoup over 20yrs.
People ignore all my previous posts, I am wrong on all aspects, apologies for the drivel I have posted.
MickeyD
RIP
I think many folks seriously underestimate the size and extent of the local loop network...
Unfortunately nothing we can do to change their perceptions.
Maybe rpm should organise a video tour of a big telco and post it online so they can get just a tiny insight into the scale of things. The section from the cable vault to the MDF should be enough to make their jaws drop I reckon, never mind the higher level stuff
That sig is just wrong
upup
Executive Member
a Few companies tendered those days and when Neotel arives, goverment knew this was the write one.
I suppose they also had to give phones to people previously .. who did not pay for it. Also this is Africa where you have to wait very long for permission for laying fiber, built towers, etc. Hope they can turn it around.
I suppose they also had to give phones to people previously .. who did not pay for it. Also this is Africa where you have to wait very long for permission for laying fiber, built towers, etc. Hope they can turn it around.
Shayd
Expert Member
How to fix Neotel.
Well this is my situation, I have a ton of fiber in the ground and my very own access to SEACOM. My last mile technology sucks but I have a Wimax license. Hmm
How about I release a competitor to ADSL Technology by releasing a "Wimax to the Home" product. My current Wimax product is "AUPed" at 2:1 but how about I "AUP" at 20:1 and put in a higher margin per user.
Current Neotel Wimax Rates:
Peak Download Speed Peak Upload Speed Cost AUP
1Mbps 768Kbps R1299 160GB
2Mbps 1.6Mbps R1699 320GB
5Mbps 2Mbps R2299 800GB
8Mbps 3Mbps R4499 1280GB
Proposed Neotel Wimax Rates:
Peak Download Speed Peak Upload Speed Cost AUP
1Mbps 768Kbps R300 16GB
2Mbps 1.6Mbps R400 32GB
5Mbps 2Mbps R600 80GB
8Mbps 3Mbps R800 128GB
Plus add in a 1 yr contract and a initial charge to cover the device and you will have this forum and therefore the IT communities' backing.
Make the AUP enforcement "client based", so when your monthly amount is consumed you drop from "gold" to "silver" priority.
I would be willing to make a bet that within 2 years they will pick up at least 200000 clients with this product in the urban centers alone!
Sorry about the AUP term guys but contention isn't mentioned on their website.
The simple truth is that Neotel now has the backbone to provide this product, their CEO just needs the spine to make it happen. Perhaps Lars should go run Neotel for a couple of years.
Well this is my situation, I have a ton of fiber in the ground and my very own access to SEACOM. My last mile technology sucks but I have a Wimax license. Hmm
How about I release a competitor to ADSL Technology by releasing a "Wimax to the Home" product. My current Wimax product is "AUPed" at 2:1 but how about I "AUP" at 20:1 and put in a higher margin per user.
Current Neotel Wimax Rates:
Peak Download Speed Peak Upload Speed Cost AUP
1Mbps 768Kbps R1299 160GB
2Mbps 1.6Mbps R1699 320GB
5Mbps 2Mbps R2299 800GB
8Mbps 3Mbps R4499 1280GB
Proposed Neotel Wimax Rates:
Peak Download Speed Peak Upload Speed Cost AUP
1Mbps 768Kbps R300 16GB
2Mbps 1.6Mbps R400 32GB
5Mbps 2Mbps R600 80GB
8Mbps 3Mbps R800 128GB
Plus add in a 1 yr contract and a initial charge to cover the device and you will have this forum and therefore the IT communities' backing.
Make the AUP enforcement "client based", so when your monthly amount is consumed you drop from "gold" to "silver" priority.
I would be willing to make a bet that within 2 years they will pick up at least 200000 clients with this product in the urban centers alone!
Sorry about the AUP term guys but contention isn't mentioned on their website.
The simple truth is that Neotel now has the backbone to provide this product, their CEO just needs the spine to make it happen. Perhaps Lars should go run Neotel for a couple of years.
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I don't think wireless would help Neotel, in fact it is part of the reason they're in the position they are. When it comes to wireless they can't compete with the GSM operators and never will be able to.
Their next problem is the same one Telkom have - are they wholesalers or retailers? Focus on one, don't do a rubbish job of both.
If Neotel had focused their entire being on building universal fiber optic networks in high-density areas they would not be in this mess.
Their next problem is the same one Telkom have - are they wholesalers or retailers? Focus on one, don't do a rubbish job of both.
If Neotel had focused their entire being on building universal fiber optic networks in high-density areas they would not be in this mess.
Eish, this was the longest Neotel thread in a long time, and now it's dead.
Lol, Neotel is not very popular, I see!
there's a lot of talk here, but i think you have to take business into account. first, neotel is NOT focussed on consumer stuff, so all the whining about how crap your home service is and people use cell phones instead of telephones etc is irrelevant. it constitutes probably 0.1% of their total revenue and is not even on the radar to grow exponentially. why compete in that space - its a dead end. i think they were forced under political pressure to start offering consumer services so that the '2nd national operator' could become a reality and government wouldn't look like a bunch of 'tards.
on the business front, telkom pwned them proper by re-negotiating the big contracts with all their long term top 250 customers. and why not. IS did the same. the customer is yours, make it cheap and easy to for them to renew, business won't complain. when neotel sales come knocking, that top 250 use them for backup or redundancy, which is significantly less than the 'main line' revenue.
so what should have been the correct neotel response to this situation?
well, ajay pansy (thank god he is going) - oh sorry - typo, ajay panDy often talked about neofail being a 'change agent' and actually went as far as comparing neotel's contribution to telecoms with ghandi's contribution to democracy - yes crazy as that may seem it was far from the truth. look, they spent billions on infrastructure. go ahead and set a ridiculous price precedent and sell the service cheap. make it so cost effective that everyone can afford it, and want it, and make it damn good.
instead, all their products, top to bottom are priced like someone trying to recoup 2.5 billion investment in 1 calendar year. not going to happen!
make the business products so cheap that it allows customers to buy it anyway, and then make it so good that they see no point in holding onto telkom!!
same applies for consumer. i had a 5gb crap package at R500 a month. i can now buy a gig of broadband for R19 and its frikkin faster than neofail???
take a leaf out of cars. vw started by introducing a cheap but good quality car to the market. as they got volume, they improved the quality continuously. now, after developing a reputation of having good, high quality reliable cars, the price is improved, and if you look at the sales figures, people pay the price because they KNOW its good. they didn't start out with a ludicrous price and assume people would pay because marketing said its a good car.
wake up neotel. go for volume and quality. stop talking up the marketing and start delivering on the promise.
forget this per gig **** on broadband. open it up. you have the bandwidth - no point saving it for some rainy day!!
in the corporate space, you're too pricy by half... just do a 50% off special till the end of the year... you'll see the market respond.
on the business front, telkom pwned them proper by re-negotiating the big contracts with all their long term top 250 customers. and why not. IS did the same. the customer is yours, make it cheap and easy to for them to renew, business won't complain. when neotel sales come knocking, that top 250 use them for backup or redundancy, which is significantly less than the 'main line' revenue.
so what should have been the correct neotel response to this situation?
well, ajay pansy (thank god he is going) - oh sorry - typo, ajay panDy often talked about neofail being a 'change agent' and actually went as far as comparing neotel's contribution to telecoms with ghandi's contribution to democracy - yes crazy as that may seem it was far from the truth. look, they spent billions on infrastructure. go ahead and set a ridiculous price precedent and sell the service cheap. make it so cost effective that everyone can afford it, and want it, and make it damn good.
instead, all their products, top to bottom are priced like someone trying to recoup 2.5 billion investment in 1 calendar year. not going to happen!
make the business products so cheap that it allows customers to buy it anyway, and then make it so good that they see no point in holding onto telkom!!
same applies for consumer. i had a 5gb crap package at R500 a month. i can now buy a gig of broadband for R19 and its frikkin faster than neofail???
take a leaf out of cars. vw started by introducing a cheap but good quality car to the market. as they got volume, they improved the quality continuously. now, after developing a reputation of having good, high quality reliable cars, the price is improved, and if you look at the sales figures, people pay the price because they KNOW its good. they didn't start out with a ludicrous price and assume people would pay because marketing said its a good car.
wake up neotel. go for volume and quality. stop talking up the marketing and start delivering on the promise.
forget this per gig **** on broadband. open it up. you have the bandwidth - no point saving it for some rainy day!!
in the corporate space, you're too pricy by half... just do a 50% off special till the end of the year... you'll see the market respond.
I have made several posts vaguely pro Neotel. This refers to their sponsorship of an informative site (TelcoTalk on CNBC Africa) on TV. I have no direct experience of Neotel but it appears not to be held in high regard. I live and learn.