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13 April 2012

Fuel leak disrupts Telkom services

A fuel leakage in Kwa Mashu in Kwa-Zulu Natal has caused severe contamination in the vicinity including Telkom's underground access points. This has resulted in damage to Telkom's underground infrastructure, disrupting telecommunication services in the area.

“Telkom is deeply concerned about the environmental impact that this leak is having in the area as the affected site has been declared unsafe due to the volatile nature of the contamination," said Mr Theo Hess, Telkom's Managing Executive for Network Field Services.

“Our customers have been without service for some time now as Telkom technicians are not able to access the site to repair and restore services. Repairs can only commence when the site is declared safe," he added.

 A total of 1045 Telkom customers in Emlanjeni, Emthini, Esibululungu, Kwa Mashu H and Kwa Mashu K have been affected by this incident.

“Steps to clear the fuel contamination are currently taking place. Telkom is set to meet with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the responsible fuel company on Tuesday, 17 April at the site to find a speedy solution to this problem," explained Hess.

“Meanwhile we are investigating all possibilities to provide our customers with temporary services until the relevant authorities give us the green light to proceed with restoration work in the affected vicinity," he concluded.

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.