SATNAC 2006 focuses on next-generation services

Issued by Telkom

Johannesburg, 15 Aug 2006

Next-generation services, the network@work, will be the theme at the ninth annual South African Telecommunication Network and Application Conference (SATNAC) to be held at Stellenbosch`s Spier Wine Estate in September this year.

The Telkom-hosted conference focuses on new trends in the telecommunications industry and also affords post-graduate students the opportunity to showcase the research conducted at Telkom`s 16 Centres of Excellence countrywide.

Platinum sponsors for the conference include leading telecommunications companies such as Ericsson, Alcatel, Saab Grintek, Cisco Systems, Huawei, Tellabs, TFMC, Vodacom, Siemens and IST Holdings. Representatives from some of these companies will participate in plenary sessions and panel discussions during the three-day conference, which commences on 4 September and ends on 6 September 2006.

Key topics at this year`s SATNAC Conference include discussions on whether the changing ICT landscape really supports the evolution of next-generation services, whether the provisioning of next-generation services meet customer expectations, how next-generation services are enabled as well as how these services are accessed by the customer.

Participants include telecommunication operators and vendors from abroad, with key international speakers at this year`s conference being Paul Excell, director of operations at British Telecom; Lindsay Servian, executive vice-president of business development at PCCW, the largest telecommunications provider in Hong Kong; and Alfonso Marioconda, vice-president, Telecom Italia.

Registration for this year`s conference is currently open. To participate in the informative deliberations around next-generation services, please register for the conference at www.satnac.org.za. Registration fees for the three-day conference will cost R5 500, R2 300 for students and R2 300 for day delegates.

Telkom

Telkom SA Limited is one of the largest companies registered in the Republic of South Africa and is the largest telecommunications service provider on the African continent based on operating revenue and assets. Telkom offers fixed-line voice and data services, branded as Telkom, and mobile communications services through a 50% shareholding in the joint venture, Vodacom, a company incorporated in the republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.

Telkom has approximately 4.7 million telephone access lines in service as of March 2006. Telkom is South Africa`s incumbent operator. Telkom had consolidated operating revenue of R47.6 billion ($7.7 billion) for the year ended 31 March 2006. Telkom`s subsidiaries include Telkom Directory Services (Pty) Ltd, which provides complete yellow and white pages directory services as well as electronic services, and Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd. Swifnet trades under the name of FastNet Wireless Service and provides synchronous wireless access on Telkom`s X25 network, Saponet-P, to its customers. Telkom strongly believes in corporate social investment and has a dedicated wing, the Telkom Foundation, which focuses in investing and developing previously disadvantaged South African communities.

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