7/15/2015 Neotel hits profitability milestone | ITWeb INTERNET DISCONNECT FREE NEWSLETTERS IT DIRECTORY NEWS ALERTS RSS NEWS TIP­OFFS ADD TO FAVOURITES SECTION CO­SPONSOR TELECOMS SPONSOR HOME OPINION IN DEPTH SURVEYS JOBS SERVICES EVENTS PUBLICATIONS ABOUT SOFTWARE AG ­ By sector BUSINESS CHANNEL COMPUTING ENTERPRISE FINANCIAL HARDWARE INTERNET NETWORKING SECURITY SOFTWARE TELECOMS VIRTUAL PRESS OFFICES™ COMPANY ZONES Advertise on ITWeb Wed, 15 Jul, 14:58:04 PM You are here Home Telecoms COMMENT Neotel hits profitability milestone ON THIS SEND TO A FRIEND By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor. Johannesburg, 29 May 2013 QUICK PRINT FOLLOW US Neotel, SA’s second national fixed­line operator, has ON TWITTER reported positive operating income for the year to FOLLOW US March, hitting one of the milestones on way to ON LINKEDIN profitability, for the first time since launch six years ago. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK The operator this afternoon said it had turned positive on an earnings before interest and tax basis and was SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER now aiming to be positive on a pre­tax basis by year­ end. Neotel recorded revenue growth of 12% for the year to March, while earnings before interest, tax, Neotel CEO Sunil Joshi says the company seeks depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased CAPTURE to become a real choice for customers ­ not just a 531% over the same period. Looking for a comprehensive viable alternative. range of tailor made document scanning and Neotel CEO Sunil Joshi says the company, which has retrieval solutions? been EBITDA positive for the past seven quarters, now aims to focus on becoming profitable before tax (PBT). “We set ourselves a target of turning EBIT positive, and we thumped that target – now we want to go PBT positive – an aim we anticipate to achieve by the end of the year,” says CFO Steven Whiley. TELECOMMUNICATIONS Are you ready to find your freedom? Break free with Joshi notes, amid what he says is a competitive environment fraught with uncertainty, Neotel has Mitel managed to surpass the industry growth rate. “Neotel continues to capture market share. While the fixed­line telecommunications market in SA is projected to grow at 1.4% per annum until 2018, Neotel is growing at more than eight times this rate.” PROJECTED TPG Africa is the leading project, programme and project portfolio management Neotel’s core customer base – the enterprise sector – is up 29% year­on­year, reports the company. solutions provider in Africa This, says Whiley is driven by underlying revenue growth of 44% in managed services, and 24% in network services. The company’s Internet connectivity services from its two See also flagship products – NeoInternet Neotel comes of age Neotel gains on Telkom and NeoBroadband – have seen more than 75% Rrecvoemnmueended for you Neotel growth, while voice services revenue grew 24%. NSeAo ftleulnks in mathsS, uscnieiln Jcoeshi reported a 52% increase in what it classifies as itstr caoinninsugmer customers, comprised of small enterprise and retail. “We now have 3 000 business customers, and 152 000 consumer customers,” says Joshi. Network build He says, over the past year, Neotel has injected over R500m in capital expenditure, primarily to bolster Broadlink is a its national network. 80% of the spend was allocated the company’s network and network infrastructure, telecommunications company, http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64468:Neotel­hits­profitability­milestone 1/3 7/15/2015 Neotel hits profitability milestone | ITWeb while 20% went to IT, “largely to drive automation and integration of applications”. providing high­speed connectivity infrastructure to South African businesses and ISPs. Serious bandwidth. For serious business. Neotel reports that it now has access to over 15 000 km of national long distance fibre, and 8 000 km of fibre in major metros – all owned and operated by the company. “This domestic fibre network is connected to all five undersea cables that land on South African shores, linking the major hubs within the country to each other as well as to global markets, both emerging and developed.” AFRICA Job losses are unavoidable says MTN SA's new CEO Also during its 2013 financial year, says Joshi, Neotel completed phase 1 and 2 of its national long­ New CEO for Helios Towers Africa distance (NLD) fibre routes. Neotel’s phase 1 and 2 NLD links extend from Johannesburg to Durban. Safaricom, Standard Chartered unite to empower The company aims to complete phase 3 and 4 (extending to Cape Town) by the end of this year. merchants Alcatel –Lucent speeds up submarine networks Meanwhile, Neotel’s long­term evolution (LTE) trials, which have been running since October last year, Nigeria's telcos winning in numbers game have come to an end and the company plans to launch commercial LTE services within the next three months – after garnering customer feedback. The next­generation technology will initially cover only Gauteng, via 50 LTE­enabled base stations, using the 1 800 MHz band. Joshi says, however, Neotel’s overall LTE plan is “extensive” and that the company would continue to drive the technology through services and devices in coming months. “We are currently implementing [LTE] infrastructure in phase 0 and it should be up and running around the middle of Neotel’s second quarter. 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