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14 March 2012

Inclement weather disrupts Telkom services

The heavy downpours and flooding caused by the passing of cyclone Irina has caused major problems in Kwa-Zulu Natal causing floods, damage to roads and infrastructure and in many parts of the province disruption to Telkom’s telecommunications service.

“Fortunately the full might of the cyclone was not felt on South African shores – however the associated inclement weather has severely affected our response and restoration time,” says Mr Theo Hess, Telkom’s Managing Executive for Network Field Services.

The damage caused to roads due to flooding makes it increasingly difficult for Telkom’s technicians to access sites where services have been disrupted.

"Our outdoor infrastructure, such as overhead cables, has been damaged by fallen trees and flooded manholes cannot be accessed to resolve faults."

Moreover, explains Mr Hess, local authorities have prevented Telkom staff from entering certain areas owing to hazardous conditions.

The worst hit areas include Durban Central, Verulam, Hibberdene, Umhlanga, Umdloti, Pinetown, Phoenix and Mount Edgecombe. Residential, business and wholesale customers have been affected in these areas.

"Telkom is closely monitoring the situation and will do everything possible to restore services as expeditiously as possible. We are mobilising all available technicians to work additional hours to resolve all outstanding faults," says Mr Hess.

"Telkom remains committed to overcoming these challenging conditions to get our customers connected to their services as soon as possible," he concludes.

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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ABOUT TELKOM:

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.

As of 30 September 2015, we had approximately 3.3 million telephone access lines in service and 1,030,441 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

  • fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;
  • fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
  • interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
  • fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
  • Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
  • W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
  • mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile navbar-brand called Telkom Mobile;
  •  information and communication services including cloud services, infrastructure services, workspace services, global service integration management and hardware and network equipment sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and
  • other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

Convergence is one of our key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom.  We will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of our mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.