Telecommunications group Telkom on Wednesday kicked off the consultation process with organised labour that could see up to 3 000 workers retrenched.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration will facilitate the Section 189 process, which was announced last week as the JSE-listed group battles to compete in a “duopolistic mobile market where the two largest players have virtual control over voice and data prices.”

“The group is, [however,] optimistic that the Data Services Market Inquiry will yield firm regulatory action to stimulate competition in South Africa’s mobile market,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Competition Commission in December published the final report on its Data Services Market Inquiry, which deemed data prices in South Africa “excessively high”.

The commission’s market inquiry into high data costs, started in August 2017, unpacked the general state of competition in data services, examined any features that prevent, distort or restrict competition and reviewed the cause of high data prices.

Telkom has seen a sharp decline in fixed-voice and interconnection revenues across the group as customers shift towards new technologies, such as fibre to the home.

Telkom indicates that the rapid changes in technology has taken a toll on profitability, despite the necessary investments in new technologies and revenue streams, particularly in the fast-growing mobile business.

While it is confident that ongoing investments in the mobile business and other future growth areas will bear fruit into the future, other segments of the business are operating in declining market segments, including the fixed-voice business.

The company, which aims to trim down in an effort to ensure its sustainability, is having to reposition itself amid fundamental changes within the telecommunications industry and a difficult macroeconomic environment where gross domestic product per capita is declining because economic growth is lagging population growth.