Telkom

Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority-privatised with it being 39% state-owned enterprise.

• How much is unlimited data for Telkom?
• How do I activate my Telkom router SIM card?
• How do I pay my Telkom via EFT?
• How do I connect to Telkom WIFI?

Telkom group structure

Telkom Group Head Office, as seen from Church Square in Pretoria – City Centre (Direction: NNW)

Telkom SA is structured under Group CEO. The retail division, including Telkom Business, Telkom Mobile, Consumer Marketing, Cloud, IT Operations, and its Wholesale and Networks division (Openserve).

Cybernest focuses on Telkom’s newly deployed DCO infrastructure in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg, as well as services thereupon, including data hosting, LAN and application management, and managing IT infrastructure for corporate and large business customers.

Openserve is a licensed infrastructure service provider, installing FTTH infrastructure throughout South Africa and providing products and services to internet service providers. In 2021, Openserve joined the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa.

Telkom acquired Business Connexion in August 2015 for approximately ZAR 2.6 billion with the strategic intent of obtaining a significant presence in the Information Technology (IT) market in South Africa. This was the second attempt at the acquisition by Telkom and was subject to a number of prescribed conditions set out by the competition authorities i.e. one of which was to ensure minimal impact on staff retrenchments. The integration of the two organisations enabled a new and compelling value proposition to be offered to private and public business customers in the domestic market.

Jeffrey Hedberg was appointed acting group chief executive officer on 7 July 2010 following Reuben September’s resignation. Jeffrey was the CEO of Cell C from 2006 to 2009. However, on 13 January 2011, TechCentral reported that Hedberg would quit Telkom by the end of March 2011, citing that he felt that he would not be given the mandate he needed to fix Telkom commercially and operationally

In 2013, allegations of corruption in terms of poor procurement practice, nepotism and mismanagement were unveiled.

Telkom market position and ownership

Telkom was managed by US-based SBC Communications (now AT&T Inc.) from 1997 to 2004. SBC has since sold its interest in the company, after reducing operational expenditure (reducing staff resources, etc.) and increasing revenue by increased product prices, thereby increasing the share-price for greater ROI.

The company is currently the market leader in the broadband space, with more than 500,000 customers on 2-40 Mbit/s DSL; it dominates the managed services market and has more than 250 corporate customers on its order book. Telkom SA operates 4.5M fixed access lines, bases on its 2008 annual report.

Products and services

Telkom ADSL

Telkom provides ADSL retail services via their ISP Telkom Internet to consumer and business customers, and through Telkom Wholesale to other licensed operators. Most ISPs in South Africa, such as Afrihost, utilise Telkom’s copper infrastructure for reselling ADSL services.

Telkom provides ADSL with POTS. According to Telkom’s figures, 92% of exchanges have been upgraded to support ADSL. Telkom is currently the largest provider of fixed-line broadband in the country, with 412 190 subscribers according to the 2008 annual report.

Telkom ADSL is billed as an add-on service to a POTS voice line. A PPPoE account, which can be provided by most Internet Service Providers (ISPs), must be purchased separately to the ADSL connection for internet access. ISPs are divided into two categories, those who purchase IPConnect from Telkom and those who resell PPPoE accounts from IPConnect ISPs or Telkom themselves. IPConnect is a Telkom bit-stream access product allowing ISPs to route internet bandwidth from their ADSL subscribers over their own bandwidth.

Originally, three connection rate ranges are offered (associated with different connection fees) which are “Fast” (1024/384 kbit/s), “Faster” (up to 2048/512 kbit/s), “Fastest” up to 10240/1002 kbit/s (ADSL2+)) of bandwidth for downstream/upstream respectively existed. The actual speed obtained can vary depending on line conditions. These connection rate ranges have since changed, with the minimum speed currently being 2048/512 kbit/s and mid-range 5120/512 kbit/s.

Telkom have released a 10 Mbit ADSL 2+ service for a limited amount of “Fastest” users on 15 August 2010.

From 18 October 2011, Telkom Internet launched business offerings, and has subsequently increased value with speed upgrades and improved prioritisation for business users, as well as converting products to include soft-capping (unlimited browsing).

Telkom Internet offers business and residential SoftCap packages (as of 1 February 2012).

As of 24 August 2012, “Faster” (1024 kbit/s) users started reporting speed upgrades to 2 Mbit/s (2048 kbit/s) on their ADSL Lines. As of 2 September 2012, Telkom have begun the process of trialing 40Mbit/s VDSL and FTTx.

Telkom 3G

Telkom had offered 3G products available since 2008. The coverage was initially limited to a small part of the country. Telkom entered the South African Cellular market under the brand 8ta. The public launch of the network took place on 14 October 2010 and products have been available since 18 October 2010,supporting both GSM and 3G services.

Telkom Music

Telkom partnered with Tencent Africa to launch the Telkom Music, a music streaming service that is made available via the Telkom Music Powered By JOOX app in South Africa on 22 July 2021. The Telkom Music Powered by JOOX app was reviewed by Arthur Goldstuck, founder of World Wide Worx.

Local subsidiaries

Telkom Group Limited includes South African subsidiaries, BCX and Gyro.

The FastNet subsidiary was incorporated into BCX in 2018 with all enterprise wireless solutions, including µWave, satellite, 4G/5G and Wi-Fi solutions.