Neotel remains focused on consumer services
Neotel has come under fire for their lack of commercial voice and Internet offerings in the residential market, sparking speculation that the company is more focused on the lucrative corporate market than the consumer space.
The company initially indicated that residential consumers and SMMEs will start seeing commercial offerings from Neotel in late 2006, but nearly a year later Telkom still has an effective monopoly in the fixed line telephony space.
Neotel’s Angus Hay, speaking at the ITWeb Broadand and Wireless conference in Midrand, debunked any rumors that they are mainly focused on their wholesale and enterprise customers, saying that it has ‘two faces, one enterprise and one consumer’.
Trial to be extended
Hay said that they are currently trialing their CDMA based high speed Internet and voice service, and added that this trial will be extended to include an ever increasing user base as time progresses.
Hay further pointed out that they will not introduce their consumer offerings with a ‘big bang’, but will rather follow a soft launch approach where more consumers are slowly added to their CDMA network.
The company’s initial focus will be on the major metropolitan areas, and consumers and SMMEs – who reside in Gauteng, Cape Town or Durban. People who are interested in joining the Neotel trial are invited to visit the Neotel website and sign up for this service.
True converged solutions
Hay further pointed out that the company is not planning to launch loose standing services, typically only voice or only Internet access. Neotel is rather looking at truly converged services, bundling voice, data and/or Internet services.
Hay pointed out that the days of pure voice services and the revenues associated with such offerings are dying a slow death, and that voice has merely become an application of a true broadband service.
Neotel appears to follow a strong ‘new generation’ approach in their product development with voice being part of their service offering rather than forming the core of their value proposition.
Pricing remains important
Conference chair Ivo Vegter asked Hay about Neotel’s potential pricing for their services. Hay did not want to give specific details but he said that pricing remains a key part of any compelling offer. He is confidant that the value proposition of Neotel’s converged solutions will be well worth it.
When asked more directly whether their offerings will be cheaper than Telkom’s current ADSL services, Hay said tongue-in-cheek ‘How could you possibly be more expensive?’
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