Neotel appoints Sunil Joshi as MD & CEO (South Africa, India)
South African telecom operator Neotel has appointed Sunil Joshi as Managing Director and CEO of the company in which Indian conglomerate Tata group owns majority stake. The appointment is with effect from April 1, 2011.
Sunil Joshi has replaced Ajay Pandey, who will move back to Tata Communications after completing five years with Neotel.
According to Neotel Non-Executive Chairman N Srinath, Sunil is strongly positioned to take Neotel forward along with the changing needs of the market, as enterprise customers shift their focus more towards managed services, in line with global trends.
There were speculations in the past few weeks that Neotel, 56% owned by Tatas, was in serious financial trouble, even informing its staff that retrenchment were possible this year.
Joshi has more than 22 years of experience in the Indian domestic and global IT and telecom industry. He has led Tata Communications’ strategy for emerging markets as well as providing international customers’ access into new markets.
Vodacom Business Begins Fiber-Optic Network Installation in Western Cape Towns
Vodacom Business has started the installation of fiber-optic networks in smaller towns in the Western Cape region including Stellenbosch, Wellington, Paarl and Somerset West.
Ermano Quartero, Managing Executive for Products and Marketing at Vodacom Business, stated that the installation comprises 23 km of fiber-optic cable from Stellenbosch to Kuilsriver, stretching midway between Somerset West and Stellenbosch. Halfway
Vodacom Business is laying a 48 km of fiber-optic cable in Somerset West, comprising the remaining part of the Somerset West/Stellenbosch Road and through the N2 to Mitchells Plain. An additional 49km fiber-optic cable has been deployed in Wellington and Paarl and another 38 km cable has been installed in Somerset West, Paarl and Stellenbosch.
Vodacom Business has started the fiber-optic cable installation in the Western Cape region immediately after its fiber-optic projects in the prominent metropolitan areas. The company is also planning to collaborate with competitors MTN and Neotel to develop a nationwide fiber-optic network connecting coastal cities and Gauteng.
Tata Communication’s S. African unit plans restructuring (India, South Africa)
South Africa’s Neotel, a unit of Tata Communications is considering restructuring as it faces tough competition in Africa’s biggest economy.
Launched in 2006 after long delays, the company began offering telephone and internet services to corporate customers in March 2007, and has yet to turn a profit.
According to Neotel, it would consider realignment and restructuring options.
It was not clear whether the restructuring would result in job cuts or closing down parts of the business.
Neotel added that it was trying to ensure it was sufficiently geared to meet the challenges of the market.
It competes for corporate clients with Telkom, Internet Solutions — a unit of Dimension Data, and mobile phone group MTN and Vodacom’s business unit.
Neotel is rolling out wireless and fibre-optic networks to snatch fixed-line revenues from Telkom, which recently launched its own mobile unit.
South African telco Neotel causes loss to Tata comm
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Tata Communications, a global bandwidth carrier has reported a net loss of 5.98 billion rupees for the year, held down by a 4.64 billion rupee loss from its 49% holding in South African operator Neotel, and a 4.1 billion rupee depreciation hit.
Stake in South African firm Neotel has contributed maximum to the loss. The EBITDA of te telco has been reported as 10.12 billion rupees (€176 million) in the year to March, compared with a 13.66 billion rupees loss the previous year.
However, there has been a rise of 10.7% in sales which went up to 110.26 billion rupees and India-only EBITDA increased 10.9% to 1.97 billion rupees, which was 34% ahead of analysts forecast. According to the company, the growth was driven by stable pricing and rising volumes in the data segment.
Bharti pulls out of Kenya telecom race
New Delhi, Oct 19: Bharti Airtel, India’s largest private telecom operator, has pulled out of the bidding process to be the second national telecom operator in Kenya, Africa’s third largest economy.
This leaves two Indian entities — Reliance Communication and MTNL — in the fray for the Kenyan license.
When contacted, a Bharti spokesperson confirmed and said “we are not pursuing the case any more.”
The company, however, declined to give any reason for pulling out of Kenya. The company had bid for the license via its Mauritius-based arm bharti Venturetech.
According to sources, the technical evaluation would be completed by the Kenyan authorities by October 27 and technical bids will be opened the same day.
The sources said there are total three players in the fray and the financial bids of only successful bidders would be opened on October 27 itself.
The license would be issued by January 7 next year and the successful company would be offering fixed as well as mobile services in Kenya.
MTNL and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications have bid for the license independently.
VSNL is also the largest shareholder in Neotel, South Africa’s second national telecom operator which kicked off operations recently.
Source- http://www.zeenews.com
