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08 April 2009

Deployment phase of the West Africa Cable System underway

Johannesburg, 8 April 2009 - A multinational consortium of leading telecommunications operators today signed a Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) and Supply Contract for the implementation of the West Africa Cable System (WACS).

WACS is a submarine fibre optic cable that will link countries in Southern Africa, Western Africa and Europe, with at least 3.84 terabits per second of international bandwidth. Planned landing points include South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, C?d'Ivoire, Cape Verde, Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The landings in Namibia, the DRC, the Republic of Congo and Togo will provide the first direct connections for these countries to the global submarine cable network.

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks has been contracted to supply the 14,000 km long cable system with all associated landing points, which is expected to be ready for service by 2011.

Costing about US$600-million, the project has brought together a multitude of nations and some of the world's most influential telecommunications players in a joint effort to use state-of-the-art technology in linking more people more efficiently than ever before.

The West Africa Cable System represents a significant telecommunications infrastructure investment through a joint effort of a number of African and global operators and will have ample capacity to serve the region's international connectivity needs for many years to come.

The telecommunications companies that have signed the WACS Construction and Maintenance Agreement include Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, MTN, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Tata Communications, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.

WACS will provide Africa with faster and better connectivity to Europe and the world at far cheaper rates - savings which will be passed on to consumers.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Pynee Chetty

Senior Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel:+27 12 642 1716

Mobile: +27 81 389 7874

Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za

 OR

Leigh-Ann Francis

Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel: +27 12 642 1728

Mobile: +27 81 391 4780

Email: francilm@telkom.co.za

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Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue of R16.8 billion and normalised profit after tax of R1, 683 million for the period ended 30 September 2015. Total assets amounted to R41.9 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R23.5 billion as of 30 September 2015. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.4 billion for the period ended 30 September 2015.

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