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23 August 2012

SATNAC continues focus on ICT skills development

Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year, Africa's eminent ICT conference, the annual South African telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC) will once again offer ICT students a platform to showcase their research and network with industry leaders.

The SATNAC conference is recognised for the opportunity that it affords to young scientists and engineers and academia within the Information Communications and Technology (ICT) sector to share views on key challenges facing the industry, and to discuss the progress achieved in applied research.

Mr Alphonzo Samuels, Telkom's Managing Executive for Network Infrastructure Provisioning and Conference Chairman says, "One of the most important aspects of SATNAC is the platform it provides for post graduate students to network with leaders in industry, showcase their research and highlight the successes."

The programme also provides industry with an opportunity to engage with students working on various projects at the Telkom Centres of Excellence. Several post-graduate students and students from the 16 Telkom Centres of Excellence will present their research projects at the conference.

The Centres of Excellence (CoE) have been established across the country, at various universities, making it the largest coordinated research effort in ICT in South Africa. To date the programme has produced approximately 2400 Doctoral and Masters level graduates.

Last year, 53 Telkom bursars conducted their research at the various Centres of Excellence. This year, 28 of these students completed their research and have been employed at Telkom. Currently, 40 Telkom bursars are conducting their research at the sixteen Centres of Excellence across the country.

Many talented post-graduate students are attracted to exciting opportunities both locally and overseas, and the CoE programme is demonstrating that they don't have to leave SA to do exciting work," concluded Mr Samuels.

SATNAC 2012 will be held from 2 to 5 September at Fancourt, George in the Western Cape. All registrations have to be completed online (www.satnac.org.za). Information on hotel accommodation can also be found on the website.

The conference starts with a Welcome Function on Sunday evening. The traditional icebreaker golf day will begin at 09:00 on Sunday at the The Links Golf Course.

Summit TV, the official broadcast partner for the conference, will broadcast the plenary sessions live and will also broadcast a highlights package in the week after the conference.
Summit TV is available on DSTV Channel 412

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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  • other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

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