By this time next year, Telkom plans to have an integrated offer for consumers that includes uncapped Internet, voice services and video-on-demand (VOD) under one flat rate.
This is according to Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko, speaking about the company's future plans as it faces turnaround in a tough competitive environment, in a Sunday Times column today.
"It hasn't been easy, but our cost-cutting measures and new plans to generate revenue have already produced encouraging results.
"Our newer areas - mobile, cloud, computing and IT - are gaining traction. Mobile data, particularly, is doing exceptionally well. While we're working to meet the growing demand, Telkom's focus now must be on reducing the financial risk associated with our mobile arm," writes Maseko in a piece titled: "It's the year of deliver for Telkom".
Maseko concedes Telkom still has "some way to go", but says the company has undoubtedly made "measurable progress" in the last year.
"We've bolstered our executive, and we've sought to foster a new spirit of enterprise."
He says if 2013 was about putting building blocks for Telkom's recovery in place, 2014 will be a year in which the parastatal will focus on executing plans and modernising its network to make recovery possible.
"We also intend to reset our relationships and partnerships with the industry in a fundamental way."
Transparent pricing
ITWeb last week reported on Telkom's theoretical step towards a functional separation of its wholesale and retail units - the issuing of a Code of Conduct outlining how employees of each unit were expected to conduct themselves professionally.
Maseko says in his column that Telkom intends to reset relationships and partnerships with the industry through separating the various activities of Telkom into a wholesale and retail business.
"To do this in a sustainable way for the entire market, we will institute a transfer-pricing structure that will ensure our wholesale division sets prices for our Telkom retail arm in a transparent way.
"In fact, our wholesale business will be retail agnostic, providing connectivity and other services to all of the players in the market in a fair and transparent way."
Local loop unbundling
Maseko acknowledges "some big challenges" also loom in 2014 - particularly from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
The main issue, he points out, is local loop unbundling (LLU), a process that he says could see ICASA "force Telkom to hand over control of its fixed-line connection with its customers to other companies".
He says the problem with LLU is that it will "discourage investment in the sector - which wouldn't be desirable in a country where teledensity is only 7%." He says LLU will, at best, only benefit this 7%, which is largely urbanised.
"While LLU is meant to promote competition, the truth is that it is an outdated regulatory remedy which won't achieve that goal in the era of fourth-generation wireless technology known as long-term evolution (LTE)." '
Maskeo says, if anything, the regulators should rather focus on liberating the LTE spectrum for the benefit of all South Africans, and finding the right way to award spectrum to telecom players.
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