Johannesburg, 24 Mar 2004
Telkom admits it could lose up to 15% of its market to a competing second national operator (SNO), but in the meantime it has taken advantage of delays in licensing the competitor.
Telkom executives said at a telecoms analysts` day yesterday that while the SNO licence was expected to be granted this year, there was lack of clarity on when exactly this might happen.
But Telkom has not been sitting by idly. Randall Seidl, corporate and global markets managing executive, says the group has now tied 86% of its corporate customers into contracts of three to five years.
In addition, it is expanding its services from traditional telephony, managed services and integrated services digital network to new non-traditional services.
These include hosting services, local area network services and convergence - fixed and wireless. "This is a replacement revenue stream for those that will come under attack from competition," Seidl says.
Godfrey Ntoele, business and government markets managing executive, says some of the keys to retaining government and key business accounts include an increased focus on customer relationship management and long-term contracts.
Telkom is also increasing data penetration in small, medium and micro-enterprises, as well as increasing value-added service and private branch exchange.
Telkom also issued a trading statement yesterday saying that earnings and headline earnings for the year to 31 March will be at least 30% higher than those of the previous year.
Share