Telkom announces largest fibre open access suburb to date with Bryanston fibre rollout

Issued by Telkom Business
Pretoria, 23 Sep 2015

Telkom today announced that more than 12 000 Bryanston homes will have access to fibre technology by March 2016, making it the largest fibre open access suburb to date. The fibre roll out has already started.

"We are rolling out fibre to all of Bryanston as part of our aggressive push to provide one million homes with fibre access by 2018," said Telkom MD of Wholesale and Networks Alphonzo Samuels. "Bryanston will be a model for the country when it comes to connecting entire suburbs to fibre broadband."

Telkom is utilising its vast fibre infrastructure of more than 149 000km, which is unrivalled in South Africa, to bring this technology to Bryanston. Last week, Telkom announced that its open access fibre broadband network would include more than 25 additional areas, suburbs and communities by the end of September 2015. Fibre will soon be available in multiple additional suburbs of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Port Elizabeth.

Fibre to the home currently allows for download speeds of up to 100Mbps, allowing users to download a standard definition 4.7GB video in under seven minutes. An entire music album can be downloaded in eight seconds.

Fibre optic cables transmit light and is thus not affected by interference from electromagnetic noise such as radios, motors, power lines, electric fences or other cables. Consequently, fibre is a reliable and stable broadband product.

Telkom announces 1m fibre connections by 2018

Telkom's coverage map allows you to check fibre availability for your area. Go to http://www.telkom.co.za/coverage/ or http://www.telkom.co.za/coverage/ftth/. Coverage maps are regularly updated as Telkom expands its fibre network.

Telkom

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. It had consolidated operating revenue from continuing operations of R31.7 billion and profit after tax from continuing operations of R2,889 million for the year ended 31 March 2015. Total assets amounted to R42 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R25.7 billion as of 31 March 2015. The group generated free cash flow of R3.9 billion for the year ended 31 March 2015.

As of 31 March 2015, it had approximately 3.4 million telephone access lines in service and 964 196 ports connected via MSAN access. It 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 including, 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; and
* Other services including directory services, through Trudon, wireless data services, through Swiftnet.

Convergence is one of its 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.

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