The end of August saw the eventual launch of South Africa’s second network operator Neotel. A number of companies are already using the operator, which is expected to put R11-billion in its networks in the next decade, most of which will come in the next few years. South Africa’s cellphone networks are using Neotel to route some of their international calls and former monopoly is also a client.

These international routing services will be followed by offering international and national bandwidth to large firms by year end. Consumers will be able to buy fixed-line calls and internet access from Neotel sometime next year.