The second national operator (SNO) says it will begin to offer services from the second half of 2006, although some may be offered sooner.
A statement issued late last night by the SNO says it plans to become one of the country`s largest companies with the majority of personnel recruited locally and it will follow the highest standards of corporate governance.
This is the first official statement by the SNO on its plans since receiving its licence from the Independent Communications Authority of SA last week.
The statement was issued as a response to criticism that its potential customers do not yet know what its plans are. Many corporations have been actively campaigning for the SNO to be licensed to compete against the incumbent, Telkom, and as a means to lower the overall cost of telecommunications and improving service delivery.
The plans alluded to by the SNO include the build-out of its own next generation network to provide its customers with high quality, reliability and efficiency that is competitive with best practice in the world today.
"The network shall be built with both convergence and fixed mobile possibilities for the near future," the statement says.
It says the SNO will focus on service delivery to its customers, reliability of its network and the provision of new products and services into the market.
"Its aim is to be the telecom partner of choice for its customers. Customers may expect to see an emphasis on customer service and affordability. They shall no longer be limited in the bandwidth they can access. The SNO shall roll-out its services to different customer segments over time as the SNO grows," the statement says.
The SNO says that since signing the shareholders agreement in August, it has been actively engaged in defining its approach to the South African market, which is now encapsulated in the SNO business plan.
"The business plan draws together the knowledge of the South African market through Transtel and Esitel together with international best practice from Tata/VSNL," the statement says.
Most of the management team will be recruited locally, but supplemented with support from Tata/VSNL and the other shareholders. The majority of the directors are South African, the statement says.
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