Fibre a key aspect of Telkom’s turnaround
Fibre has emerged as a key aspect of telecommunications group Telkom’s turnaround and its ambitions of becoming “a clear broadband leader”.
Speaking at the Southern Africa Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference, in Port Elizabeth, on Tuesday, Telkom COO Dr Brian Armstrong explained that the company’s broadband strategy was not a one-size-fits-all, but that the deployment of fibre would assist in future-proofing capabilities.
“Fibre-based access is the next phase of telecommunication evolution,” he assserted, pointing out that fibre would be prevalent in 20 years.
Its broadband strategy would see Telkom deploy a targeted technology spread of mostly very high bit rate digital subscriber line, or VDSL, fibre and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), with long-term evolution and asymmetric digital subscriber line, or ADSL, comprising 30% and 10% respectively in the long-term.
Telkom, which had more than 147 000 km of fibre and 16 588 fibre distribution points enabling more than 100 000 services, aimed to light up its 20-suburb FTTH project, which was implemented in June.
The group’s FTTH connectivity project, which aimed to enable guaranteed speeds of 100 Mb/s on the network, had passed nearly 2 000 of the targeted 25 000 homes.
The 20-suburb roll-out was only the first phase, allowing the group to study the uptake and demand for FTTH.
Meanwhile, Armstrong noted that Telkom’s turnaround was not only about innovation, but a return to the basics.
“We do not need to reinvent growth, we just need to execute the basics,” he said, pointing out the importance of breaking from the past, being noticed and being different.
Telkom’s turnaround also rested on its ability to provide “superb” customer experience, deliver broadband products that meet customers’ needs wherever they were, ensure a great Internet service provider platform, establish compelling content and value-added services and reviving the Telkom brand.
It was necessary for the group to get the content and value-added services right as broadband provision and content offering were increasingly colliding.
Further, the company had, over the past six months, focused on a programme of work addressing the critical issues customers had indicated needed to be fixed.
“We went off the boil on customer service,” Armstrong said.
However, the company was bouncing back, with Telkom “really working on this.”
Over the next two to three years, Telkom aimed to embed the new customer service vision within the group.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation