Telecommunications company Neotel has unveiled its first prepaid offering, announcing on Wednesday that it would charge 20c/minute for ad-hoc prepaid data and 50c/minute for calls to Telkom and other Neotel numbers.

Neotel is “soft launching” its first prepaid product this month in the hope of improving its poor performance in the retail consumer market, where it has signed up fewer than 50 000 paying customers.

The company, licensed four years ago as the first fixed-line rival to incumbent Telkom, has built a network using CDMA2000, a rival technology to the GSM networks used by the mobile operators. CDMA2000 is particularly well suited to provide fixed-wireless solutions.

Neotel’s new prepaid product, which is only available in R100 vouchers for now, offers fixed-line calls (Neotel to Neotel and Neotel to Telkom) for 50c/minute, regardless of distance and time of day.

Calls to mobile operators cost R1,50/minute in peak times and R1,20/minute in off-peak periods. SMSes cost 20c each. Consumers will still need to purchase a CDMA-compatible handset at a cost of R599.

The handset is only capable of data downloads at typical dial-up speeds. USB data modems offering faster downloads will go on sale soon, but are not available yet, according to a Neotel spokesman.

Neotel prepaid rates — Neotel's prepaid prices

Vouchers can be bought at Neotel shops, Postnet stores and other outlets, including Sasol forecourts in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. — Staff reporter, TechCentral