Telkom announces initial roll-out of LTE Advanced

Issued by Telkom Business
Pretoria, 01 Oct 2014

Telkom today announced it will begin the roll-out of its LTE Advanced (LTE-A) connectivity, in more than 50 suburbs across South Africa, by the end of this year.

Considered to be the next evolution of high speed wireless connectivity, LTE-A can potentially offer speeds of up to 3Gbps. Telkom has started its LTE-A journey and is currently upgrading its network to offer customers peak speeds of over 200Mbps, with a view to developing its network to ultimately deliver LTE-A peak speeds of 3Gbps.

Telkom Chief Operating Officer Dr Brian Armstrong said: "LTE-A is an integral part of Telkom's high speed broadband strategy. We believe that, in the coming years, LTE-A will become the de facto mobile data standard.

"Our LTE-A platform runs on the 2.3GHz spectrum, which is unique to Telkom. The spectrum allows us to offer efficient, high-quality and stable LTE-A technology, to our customers. The speeds offered on this technology are comparable to those offered over fibre connections, therefore offering an unparalleled wireless Internet experience."

Dr Armstrong said Telkom aims to have the first areas connected during the course of December. "We anticipate the initial roll-out will be complete by March 2015. The precise LTE-A product offerings and prices are still to be announced, but we can confirm we will offer bigger bundles and greater speeds for an enhanced wireless connectivity experience," he said.

The initial LTE-A roll-out will enable peak connectivity speeds of over 200Mbps to selected suburbs identified in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. The specific suburbs to be covered in this initial roll-out are:

Details regarding the LTE-A packages and pricing of the services will be made available in due course.

Telkom

Telkom SA ("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 31 March 2014, Telkom had approximately 3.6 million telephone access lines in service and 475 144 ports connected via MSAN access.

The company had consolidated operating revenue of R32.5 billion and profit after tax of R1 577 million for the year ended 31 March 2014, excluding the net curtailment gain. Total assets amounted to R39.4 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R22.8 billion as of 31 March 2014. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.2 billion for the year ended 31 March 2014.

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 our 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 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.

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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