In December 2005, the moment the ICT industry had been awaiting for for years arrived, with Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri awarding a licence to the second network operator (SNO).

The country would at last have a fixed line alternative to Telkom`s monopoly. Since then precious little has been heard from the entity known as SNO Telecommunications. No start date for rollout of services has been announced, there has been no campaign to raise awareness, and few journalists have had even the briefest of discussions with new MD Ajay Pandey, an executive from majority shareholder Tata Holdings, who formerly headed up the Indian-based group`s Tata Teleservices division.