VSNL''s South African JV receives PSTS license

VSNL's South African joint venture, SNO Telecommunications (PTY) Ltd, the second national operator in the country, has received the PSTS license on December 9, 2005, from ICASA, allowing it to provide a full range of telecoms services in the South African market.

For VSNL, which is the principal shareholder in the JV, this is an important development as it brings it one step closer to commencing its first overseas operations.

Since signing the shareholders agreement in August, SNO has been engaged in defining its approach to the South African market, now contained in its business plan document.. The business plan draws together the knowledge of the South African market through Transtel and Esitel together with international best practice from the Tata Group and VSNL.

The company will build a next generation network with both convergence and fixed mobile capabilities and become fully operational in the second half of 2006.