Neotel offers Telkom free international connectivity
Neotel has gained full access to the SAT3/SAFE landing stations and has subsequently built the necessary infrastructure to carry bandwidth from the undersea cables to businesses across the country over their own network.
This means that Neotel can now offer their customers international connectivity without the need to use Telkom’s network – something which Neotel previously said was a prerequisite from some companies before buying services from them.
Challenges however remain in bringing international bandwidth prices down.
According to Angus Hay, Chief Technology Officer at Neotel, the fact that a private consortium controls the SAT3/SAFE system and determines pricing for bandwidth on this cable system remains a big challenge in forcing international bandwidth prices downwards.
Competition coming
Competition is however not too far away with SEACOM – an undersea cable system running along the East Coast of Africa – set to launch in June 2009.
Neotel will land the SEACOM cable in South Africa and has already started building infrastructure with this in mind.
The SEACOM landing station is situated directly on the company’s 10 Gbps core national network – on the Durban-Richards Bay link – which makes carrying international traffic to the rest of the country seamless.
The SEACOM cable and landing station will be operated on open access principles, and pricing for bandwidth has already been published in the public domain.
SEACOM indicated that pricing will be as low as R 267.00 per Mbps/month, multiple times less than the current Telkom rates.
Neotel National Network
Neotel already has an extensive national network boasting a dual 10 Gbps core, and switched on the new SITA network which was built on top of their current infrastructure on 6 February 2008.
This network brings a great deal more bandwidth to South Africa at a national and inner-city level, and according to SITA, one of Neotel’s largest clients, the difference is clearly visible.
“Users may not have seen a major difference with their screens, but they surely noticed a difference in speed,” said Llewelyn Jones, CEO, SITA.
Loading ...