Pent-up customer demand in the newly-liberalised South African telecoms space is such that O-Tel has had to triple the capacity of its servers after just 10 weeks of commercial operations.
O-Tel was licensed by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) at the end of January and this week exceeded subscriber targets that were due to be achieved in the fourth quarter of 2009.
"Competitive reasons prevent the disclosure of exact figures. However, what is clear is that South Africans realise O-Tel is a real nationwide telecoms alternative that can provide them with voice and data within 24 hours, while the second damp squib operator is useful if you'd like a ditch dug across your driveway," commented Mohammad Patel, CEO of O-Tel.
O-Tel has real products and services available right now. The company promises to provide anyone within Telkom ADSL or Vodacom 3G coverage with a telephone line for R99 (excl VAT) per month with no contract necessary.
Data products are also available. While O-Tel does not sell direct to the end-consumer, it has established a countrywide network of dealers, which can be accessed via www.otelafrica.com.
The company promises business and residential subscribers tariffs as affordable as 45 cents (excl VAT) per minute for local calls to Telkom numbers, true per second billing from the first second (international calls are billed per minute), a 24-hour turnaround time, both telephone and Internet connections and nationwide coverage.
The telco is able to offer a nationwide telecommunications service from day one, because subscribers connect either to the Vodacom 3G network or Telkom's ADSL network to be able to make telephone calls or surf the Internet.
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