Neotel says sorry for glitch, reimburses fed-up customers

Johannesburg - After several days of hampered services, Neotel has finally restored internet access to its customers.

The company has identified and addressed the cause of the issue while it restored the 3G CDMA data service, said Neotel executive head for delivery, assurance and operations, Vinnay Singh on Wednesday.

“Neotel would like to sincerely thank its 3G CDMA data service customers for their patience and loyalty over the last days,” Singh said.

Affected customers will also be compensated for the loss of connection with an extra month of free service, said Neotel.

 “As a token of its deep appreciation to its customers, Neotel has confirmed that each affected postpaid customer will receive one month’s subscription credit as one extra month of service at no charge and affected prepaid customers’ will be credited with double their data bundle purchased next month,” said Singh.

For several days, customers slated the service provider on social networks, threatening to cancel subscriptions and picket outside company offices. 

Customers complained of slow speeds and some of no internet access at all.

But the company has played down its network woes.

"The problem was restricted to Neotel’s CDMA network and only impacted the user experience of 3G CDMA data service customers,” Singh said.

"There was no impact on Neotel’s core network, other network services or other Neotel customers," Singh said.