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03 September 2012

Telkom kicks-off high-speed broadband pilot

Telkom today launched a pilot programme to begin testing high speed broadband offerings, marking another significant milestone on the Company's journey to transform its network.

Broadband speeds of up to 40 Mbps will be tested in the pilot where Telkom has deployed new generation access network kits in five areas of three provinces in South Africa: Benmore Gardens, Fourways and Waterkloof in Gauteng; Durban North in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Durbanville in the Western Cape. The pilot will run for three months until the end of January 2013.

Telkom Group CEO, Ms Nombulelo Moholi, said: "We are putting together the necessary building blocks for a network that will be unparalleled in quality and reach. This step is very significant for us on the road to supporting innovative and pervasive broadband services and truly changing the face of broadband in South Africa."

"A core part of our strategy is to lead in the data and broadband space as well as the fixed-mobile convergence market. The timeous launch of this pilot indicates the focussed execution of our strategy," she added.

Today's announcement comes on the back of previous communication on Telkom's progress on its network transformation journey. Earlier this year, the Company reported major traction on the revamp of the various layers of its network, with significant focus on its access network.

"We are again in a position to report on our progress of the network transformation. To date, 53 MSANs (Multi Service Access Nodes) have been deployed to facilitate this pilot," said Ms Moholi.

"The objective of the pilot will be to test the integration to our BSS/OSS systems and south-bound into our network management and configuration systems. The pilot will also serve to validate and test new service fulfilment and assurance processes, assess field technical and operational readiness and evaluate the customer experience in a controlled environment," she said.

Telkom's Managing Director for Wholesale and Networks, Bashier Sallie said: "The Company's technology gearing is firmly on track. Given the mix of customer broadband needs, a dispersed customer base and vast geography in South Africa, Telkom has chosen FTTx as one of the key solutions in our access network revamp.

"We can now start to truly capitalise on the investments made in underlying transmission and core network over the past few years. We have gone a long way in revamping our aggregation network, which is now able to support super-fast transmission and enable a superior browsing experience," he explained.

"We have also transformed our transmission network, which has evolved from carrying Gbit/s to Tbit/s throughput with great resilience and manageability. Our international connectivity has received a major boost with the WACS cable becoming commercially available to ensure worldwide reach with superb capacity and resilience."

"This pilot will inform the next steps in our ambition to provide ubiquitous, quality broadband in South Africa," concluded Mr Sallie.

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.