The contract, awarded to Neotel by the State Information Technology Agency, will see the second network operator providing government departments with a faster, more advanced “new generation network” for the next five years. <\/p>\n
The new infrastructure replaces the old government common-core network, which was built on Telkom’s infrastructure and launched in 2003. <\/p>\n
The network has not been upgraded since then, despite capacity requirements growing by 150percent each year. <\/p>\n
The Neotel deal was concluded in May last year and migration of technology and information in government departments was completed last month. <\/p>\n
Llewelyn Jones, Sita’s chief executive, said: “Users may not have seen a major difference with their screens, but they surely noticed a difference in speed. <\/p>\n
“We will shortly be adding converged services which will include video and voice capabilities.” <\/p>\n
Telkom is losing its grip on the telecommunications market because of its inability to adapt to the fast-changing environment. <\/p>\n
The Sita contract is the second major deal that Telkom has lost to Neotel that it would normally have been awarded by default. <\/p>\n
Tenet, a non-profit organisation that runs a national research and education network, awarded a R192-million two-year contract to Neotel and Internet Solutions for a third-generation communications network for academic research. <\/p>\n
Experts say consumers can expect lower land-line telephone prices as competition causes the parastatal to rethink its monopoly position. <\/p>\n
Telkom still has a monopoly in asymmetric digital subscriber lines, a high-speed Internet technology, but limited coverage is causing customers to seek other technologies. <\/p>\n
Rudolph Muller, MyADSL director, said: “Telkom's business is coming under pressure. They will have to drop their prices if they want to remain competitive. <\/p>\n
“MTN and Vodacom are creating competition for Telkom’s ADSL products with higher speeds in their wireless offerings.” <\/p>\n
Neotel chief executive Ajay Pandey said the company would announce a consumer offering within 100 days. <\/p>\n