Telkom delivers fibre to South African homes

Issued by Telkom Business
Johannesburg, 17 Jun 2014

Telkom today announced its plans to roll-out fibre to the home (FTTH) connectivity to over 20 South African suburbs before the end of 2014. In addition, Telkom will deliver high-speed home LTE connectivity to a host of other suburbs across the country.

The fibre rollout will enable connectivity speeds of up to 100Mbps to the following suburbs:

Speaking at the company's annual results announcement, Telkom's Group CEO, Sipho Maseko, said: "We hear customers' demands for high quality and high speed Internet connectivity. Telkom is on a determined path to deliver on these demands.

"Our commitment to deliver this roll-out by the end of the calendar year indicates our efforts to put our customers' needs at the heart of our strategy. The quality of connectivity that fibre and LTE provide means that South Africans can take advantage of the endless possibilities that access to the Internet can provide."

"This roll-out is a precursor of many exciting prospects that Telkom is working towards. With speeds of 100Mbps on the fibre network and peak speeds of 100Mbps on the home LTE network, the concept of the 'connected home' becomes a lot more tangible and the possibility for value-added services is within reach," said Maseko.

The home LTE rollout will enable peak connectivity speeds of up to 100Mbps to the following suburbs:

Looking at the milestones achieved through Telkom's Network Transformation Programme, Maseko also highlighted that the company currently has 475 144 active VDSL ports and that 400 000 South African homes can already be supplied with VDSL connectivity with up to 20Mbps and 40Mbps services.

Telkom

Telkom SA SOC ("Telkom") is a full-service telecommunications provider for South Africa. The company offers wholesale, business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of voice and data services and products, in support of the company's mission statement - seamlessly connecting people to a better life. As of 30 September 2013, Telkom had approximately 3.7 million telephone access lines in service and 183 880 ports connected via MSAN access.

The company had consolidated operating revenue of R16.2 billion and profit after tax of R773 million for the six months ended 30 September 2013, excluding the net curtailment gain. Total assets amounted to R39.6 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R21.5 billion as of 30 September 2013. The group generated free cash flow of R33 million for the period ended 30 September 2013.

The company offers 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 the company's mobile brand called Telkom Mobile;
* Telkom Mobile is continuously expanding its long-term evolution (LTE) coverage. It is the company's latest generation of mobile network technology that provides superfast mobile wireless broadband with low latency (or buffering) that gives users an unsurpassed experience for their everyday data connectivity needs. It is a step up from 3G offering up to 90Mbps download speed and up to 25Mbps upload speeds - approximately three to four times faster than current 3G speeds. It is an ideal option for use in areas where there is no ADSL infrastructure; and
* Convergence is one of the company's key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom. It will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of its mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.

The Telkom Group consists of Telkom as well as two main subsidiaries, namely Trudon and Swiftnet. Trudon provides several directory service offerings off both physical and electronic platforms and Swiftnet provides a suite of services including traditional connectivity services for point-of sale, managed SIM services and customised wireless and wired Virtual Private Network Services.

Telkom is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and has a market capitalisation of approximately R17.5 billion (as at 31 March 2014).

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