Home Gaming Neotel reveals its broadband deal

Neotel reveals its broadband deal

1 min read
16

If you are a gamer, you definitely want a broadband connection. I’ve been very happy with my 4 Mbps line from Telkom, but it is a costly exercise that means I spend at the least a grand a month for the line and 10Gb of traffic. Thus I’ve been joining everyone in eager anticipation for rival Neotel’s option.

MyBroadband broke the news yesteday: Neotel’s NeoConnect Prime will give consumers 2.4 Mbps through its own device – for the total cost of R 599.00 per month. With this deal you get 10gb of bandwidth, 1000 free on-net voice minuted and 50 free SMS per month. Best of all, there is no setup fee or long-term contract.

But the real reason to get it is this is the only other package next to Telkom’s that offers 7c per megabyte after you go over your limit. Everyone else will charge you a lot more (see the article for a table breaking this down). This means that as long as you manage your finances, you won’t really hit any cap. I’ve been doing this using an Imaginet account with my ADSL and it is sheer bliss. Now Neotel makes that possible for around half the monthly price.

Will it be any good for games, though?

[lazy] I have been chatting to Neotel and hopefully I will be able to tell you if it’s good for games soon enough

Last Updated: April 25, 2008

16 Comments

  1. Its wireless so i dont expect much for gaming. Their tech is CDMA which is similar to 3G so we should expect high latency and signal fluctuations. The mybroadband tests showed local latency to be 150ms, with ADSL its down to 35ms.
    Also their modems dont have ethernet ports and only supports usb. So youll have to use internet connection sharing on your pc, which is a pain and an inconvenience as I have several devices connected to my router including some wireless devices. Also port forwading is a pain when using ICS.

    Reply

  2. bokka1

    April 25, 2008 at 18:18

    Anybody know the roll out areas?

    Reply

  3. bokka1

    April 25, 2008 at 22:54

    Goodbye Neotel.

    Reply

  4. scotty777

    April 25, 2008 at 23:05

    ahhhaaa, well, ya, you can play most games on wireless, BUT there will be times when you will face heavy latency, and if say more people use the service, then you will have a slower connections, but we can hope that it might be a good enough competition to telkom’s adsl which might force telkom to lower it’s pricing. I think if there modems had ethernet ports, it would be great for business

    Reply

  5. j4nr1k

    April 26, 2008 at 08:03

    We use a 36 mb neotel line at work… and I find it to be the same speed as the 25mb line telkom one we had.

    So in theory we get 11mb more for the 600k p/m we spend, but the speeds are the same for the end user.

    Reply

  6. scotty777

    April 26, 2008 at 09:47

    well, neotel is still kinda getting it’s shyte ready, so maybe, just maybe they will upgrade some of there lines and such and so on

    Reply

  7. bokka1

    April 26, 2008 at 10:10

    My neighbour has a contract to put in the cables in the Epping area in CT and he says all the initial cabling will be in industrial areas.

    Reply

  8. Milesh Bhana

    April 26, 2008 at 11:02

    i still find the notion of recieving SMS on your “land line” weird.

    As for gaming, i’m sure it’ll be ok. I know people who use the cellphones for gaming. Natually it’s not ideal but it’s doable, just don’t host games.

    It’s a pity about the USB modem. Would have been nice to have some kind of router option. But I guess it’ll come with time.

    I wonder what the call charges are going to be. I mean it’s cool that calls to other Neotel subscribers are free. But we need other on Neotel before that’s considered a perk.

    THe only problem though is that Neotel is using CDMA and ADSL 2 is around the corner for telkom. Right now, they are going to launch with a comaparable offer.

    The good thing is that might give telkom a wake up call to get DSL 2 out sooner. 🙂 Competition is always healthy.

    Reply

  9. doobiwan

    April 26, 2008 at 17:03

    Not for me. Neotel have been talking up Fibre, so maybe then they’ll be ready for gamers.

    It’s not a bad package for Joe Public.

    doobiwan’s last blog post..The Games that made the consoles

    Reply

  10. James Francis

    April 26, 2008 at 17:11

    I might go for it. I don’t really play online, so this will cover my surfing habits fairly well. I’m curious, though, how they will be shaping the traffic on the system. Still, it’s definitely looking (on paper) like the best alternative to 4mbit ADSL.

    Reply

  11. alphaV1za

    April 28, 2008 at 13:40

    I could be mistaken in saying this but.
    Isn’t this WIMAX and not wifi?
    If thats the case then its Microwave signal and not Radio waves.
    Which means no crappy latency…

    Reply

  12. Lil_Acid

    November 28, 2008 at 08:25

    Guys… you know i just want one persons number that has neotel and games online… i pretty much just play warcraft3 online and mainly for dota… please guys.. anyone with neotel and a phone number??? im really getting irritated with telkom cause its been 8 months now and neotel can sort me out… but i dont wanna go around signing a contract with neotel that i cant go back on and be a complete waste of money….. SIGH… PLEASE HELP ❗

    Reply

  13. thorne51

    March 19, 2009 at 19:51

    OK, so Neotel has the Neoflex Data thingy now. But with LOCAL pings at 150ms the international pings are bound to be MUCH higher. I play GuildWars on HSDPA and get 1000ms pings sometimes. Makes the game just about unplayable. So I would not suggest Neotel just yet for gaming. Wait for the September rollout of the new fibre cabling and we might see some improvement in both price and speed.

    Reply

  14. dewej

    March 19, 2009 at 20:06

    woob woob

    Reply

  15. Jason

    June 4, 2009 at 19:14

    I got neotel prime and its shit for online gaming… I can play dota fine but i get disconnected from games all the time. For downloads and surfing its great but not to play online. Im hoping it gets better over time.

    Reply

  16. makr

    July 7, 2009 at 11:36

    I’ve got Neotel and I’ve found that is fine for gaming (World of Warcraft). There are times when usage is high and it isn’t good, but I live in an area where the signal is bad and I only get about two bars.
    I suggest you test initially for the first few days (I think there is a get out clause for the first month…)
    If you have full signal you should always get a good enough connection!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

5 Tech Innovations Transforming Online Shopping in 2024

Your consumer experience today will never be like the face-to-face and physically draining…