Johannesburg: The Tata Africa and VSNL telecom venture in South Africa, SNO, has launched fixed line services for Africa''s wholesale telecommunications market under the brand identity of Neotel.

Neotel is the new identity of the second national operator, unveiled by the company''s managing director Ajay Pandey at a prestigious event attended by minister of communications Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and minister of public enterprises Alec Erwin in Kyalami, Johannesburg.

The company has been trading temporarily under the name SNO Telecommunications, and has been known as the SNO. Neotel represents the combined telecom participation of the Tata Group through Tata Africa, its subsidiary VSNL, Telecom Namibia through Communitel, Two Consortium comprising various South African companies involved in the telecom and ICT sector, the BEE shareholder Nexus Connexion, and the telecommunications arms of state-owned enterprises Transnet and Eskom.

Neotel''s wholesale voice services include carrying international calls from mobile network operators and VANS in SA to their destination countries and handing them over to one of more than 400 international partners of Neotel for termination to the dialled number. Similarly, Neotel will carry international voice calls destined for South Africa from almost 200 countries, bringing them into SA, and handing them over to the terminating telecom operator in SA.

Pandey, who announced the planned rollout of telecommunication services based on leading-edge technologies, disclosed that Neotel had secured access to the relevant Eskom and Transnet infrastructure, including almost 10 000km of optical fibre backbone within metros and across the country and would offer a variety of fixed and wireless services.

He added "We anticipate a cumulative capital expenditure of more than R11 billion (approximately Rs8,000 crore) in the first 10 years of our operation," he added, explaining that Neotel''s strategic objectives were to become the preferred provider of leading-edge telecoms in South Africa, to reduce the cost of doing business and promote developing industries.

Neotel announced the launch of its wholesale international services less than nine months after receiving its PSTS licence in December last year. Leveraging the global telecoms network of VSNL International, one of the world''s largest of its kind, Neotel has brought the internet into South Africa, allowing South African carriers, for the first time ever, to connect directly to the core of the internet.

Neotel has also launched its IP transit services — essentially wholesale international internet connectivity for local ISPs. Although the wholesale services are meant for other telecom players, the benefits will flow through to the end users as well.

The company claims that businesses as well as residential telecom users connected to services that use Neotel will now find that their incoming international calls, even on their mobiles, are of a much higher quality. Calling line identification (CLI) numbers will be displayed from more than 35 countries, and on outgoing international calls, users will experience call completion in fewer attempts, even to remote countries, in addition to experiencing a high voice quality.

Pandey adds, "We believe that our entry into the South African market will open up new opportunities for businesses, and create new opportunities for South Africans on the global stage. One such opportunity lies in the business process outsourcing space, an area in which we at Neotel are committed to delivering offerings in line with the industry''s needs. We hope to trigger a telecommunications revolution that has the potential to change the economic landscape of South Africa" Mr Pandey added.