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Telkom moves towards fixed-mobile

Telkom today announced the expansion of its mobile division with the launch of Telkom Business Mobile.

The telecommunications giant says the new development marks an important step towards true fixed-mobile convergence in SA.

“Telkom Business Mobile will combine the best aspects of both fixed and mobile communication services into a single product range, paving the way towards seamless connectivity between fixed and wireless networks,” said Telkom Business MD Brian Armstrong.

Although we are the incumbent, having leading market share doesn't necessarily equate to being the market leader. We are now aiming to be the market leader in fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and the cloud.

“We're not the incumbent in the mobile space, so we're very excited to be the attacker for a change.”

According to Armstrong, employees can spend up to 40% of their time away from their desks, complicating communication needs and draining productivity. “But at the same time research shows that more than 80% of mobile calls are made from a fixed location. This underlines the opportunity for FMC,” explained Armstrong.

Telkom says today's launch marks the first step in a journey towards convergence that will unfold in three phases.

The first phase is Telkom Business Mobile, which includes mobile voice, data, messaging and value-added services such as the Customer SelfCare Portal, corporate usage control, split billing and billing hierarchy models.

The second phase will be commercial bundling of fixed, mobile voice and data services, and the final phase will be an integrated converged mobile and fixed product range including unified communications.

“Telkom is one of very few players ready to take advantage of convergence opportunities, meaning fixed-mobile convergence and IT-telecoms convergence,” said Armstrong.

“We now have all the critical ingredients for true convergence: a strong fixed-line business that no one else can match, a growing mobile business and a leading data centre business.”

The launch offers include five mobile voice packages, and seven mobile data packages. Armstrong noted the Telkom Business Mobile offerings are priced on average 17-21% below the tariffs of competitors.

According to Armstrong, other key differentiators are the self-care and billing options, as well as billing hierarchies and split billing options for businesses. “This helps make employees accountable for their own devices.

“Shared bundles also allow a corporate to buy, for example, a million minute bundle and distribute it within the company as they see fit.”

Telkom Business Mobile also offers closed user groups in which members can make unlimited calls to each other at a flat rate.

The new offerings focus heavily on smartphones and tablets, and Telkom says tablets are the “future of mobile”.

Deals include BlackBerry handsets, as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook, the Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab and the iPad. Combined offers are also available, such as the BlackBerry Curve 9300 and 16GB PlayBook, for R410 per month, on a 24-month contract, or a BlackBerry Bold 9780 and 32GB PlayBook for R595 per month, also on a 24-month contract.

Details of all available offers and pricing will follow.

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