An empowerment telecommunications company with strong Buffalo City links is providing telephone users in the Amathole district with a choice for the first time.
"We are a fully-fledged telecommunications company. The main difference between us and Telkom is that we do not use cables," says director Strini Naidoo.
According to Naidoo, Easttel is an initiative by Eastern Cape business people, and "all of the original applicants for the licence still live in the area".
Over 100 small businesses and homes in Buffalo City are already connected through Easttel - one of South Africa's only telecommunications companies with an Under-serviced Area Licence (USAL).
"Demand is such that we sold 30 connections in just three weeks," he says.
They are being connected through a 3,5GHz WiMAX network, which has been built up over the past five years by Easttel in partnership with Tellumat, which is providing the technical and infrastructural support, and Nexcom, an international networking company.
The "fixed wireless" connections differ from cellphones in that they do not have the same roaming capability, but are much less costly.
"Our voice cost is 20 to 35% cheaper than anyone else. We also bill and charge per second," says Naidoo.
Both voice and high-speed data connections are provided by Easttel. "We have lots of gamers on our system at present because it is so fast," he says.
Field tests over the past year have proven the technology and the system in the Buffalo City area, and Easttel is now ready to launch to business, the public and the government sector.
It is expected to raise the competitiveness of the region.
The need for a WiMax network to boost the telecommunications infrastructure in the Amathole district was highlighted in the March 2007 Amathole Growth and Development Summit held at the Mpekweni Resort.
"Ensuring e-connectivity for the district, including rural areas, will open up opportunities for commercial information flows, non-cash banking and commerce, co-ordination and targeting of tertiary service provision (including health, education and government services), logistics improvement, improvement in rural security, and a multitude of other issues which increase competitiveness.
"Amathole has an advantage in its service backlog because new infrastructure can be of the latest technologies, without requiring write-off of obsolete technologies," it said.
According to Naidoo, Easttel is now in ready to start meeting this need.
Services will be available through most of Buffalo City by the end of the year, with the roll-out into the rural areas to follow.
