Neotel recently launched its consumer services NeoConnect Prime and NeoConnect Lite in Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban.<\/p>\n
These CDMA-based offerings are fully converged services, offering subscribers voice and Internet connectivity at a flat monthly rate. <\/p>\n
With Internet bandwidth usage limits ranging between 2GB and uncapped these offerings cater for many prospective broadband users, but the lack of an ethernet port was criticised heavily by many consumers.<\/p>\n
Neotel, however, pointed out that they have taken note of the requirements from both high-end consumers and small businesses, and are developing a new range of devices which will incorporate ethernet and even additional services such as faxing.<\/p>\n
Neotel’s chief technology officer, Angus Hay, said that the current USB-based Internet and voice devices were well suited to consumers migrating from dial-up to their NeoConnect service. <\/p>\n
Hay further pointed out that Ethernet is a power hungry service and that this addition will mean a far shorter battery life than what is currently the case with the USB connectivity. The current devices have been praised for their particularly good battery life, something which Neotel would not have liked to sacrifice.<\/p>\n
There is no set date for the launch of the ethernet-enabled devices, but Neotel did say that their phased rollout does mean they have to serve the demand of their growing user base.<\/p>\n