Private company

Neotel

Fixed line telecommunication company in South Africa

Neotel, formerly SNO Telecommunications, was the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in Midrand. Neotel is South Africa's first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal, Telkom.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

Aug 31, 2006Founded1

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Neotel, formerly SNO Telecommunications, was the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in Midrand. Neotel is South Africa's first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal, Telkom.2

The story

In 2001, an amendment to the Telecommunications Act was made that allowed for the creation of a competitor to South Africa's largest telecommunications operator, Telkom. The initial shareholders of the Second National Operator (SNO) were identified as Eskom and Transnet. In early 2002, bidding started for the remaining stakes in the SNO. The Shareholder's agreement was signed on 15 August 2005. Following the signing, the licence terms and conditions were finalized in March 2006, and the company officially launched in August 2006.

In May 2014 a buyout offer of ZAR 7 Billion from cellular network Vodacom was accepted by shareholders of both companies. Even though regulatory approval by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa was obtained in 2015, the deal ultimately collapsed in March 2016, after competitors successfully challenged the transfer of Neotel's licenses and spectrum in court.

In June 2016, Tata Communications announced that it had sold its stake in Neotel to Liquid Telecom, which is majority owned by Econet Wireless Global, for US$428 million.

From Wikipedia’s article on Neotel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

  • telecommunications

Listed on Wikidata.1

Neotel launched their consumer products in 2008.

NeoConnect

NeoConnect is an EV-DO based service and is available in two primary versions. All versions include a phone that includes support for Short Message Service (SMS) and voice calls. NeoConnect Lite is a low speed (up to 156 kbit/s) internet connectivity product. It has data cap options ranging between 2 GB and unlimited. NeoConnect Prime is a medium to high speed (up to 2.4 Mbit/s) product with data caps of between 2.5 GB and unlimited.

Limitations

Neotel's products are currently only available in limited areas (Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria)

The phone only has a USB connection and does not provide a connection compatible with devices meant to connect to phone lines, such as fax machines.

Read the full text

Latency is variable, making the connection unsuitable for online gaming, VoIP and other jitter sensitive applications.

From Wikipedia’s article on Neotel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. Aug 31, 2006Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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