Telkom says in a statement that it has reached a significant milestone in its deployment of the company's network transformation programme with the cutover of 240 multi-service access node (MSAN) units.
In 2012, Telkom conducted a pilot to test its new fixed broadband access network technology in 53 identified areas. MSAN was chosen as the technology to cater for fibre to the home or business and VDSL over reduced last mile copper.
The pilot was successfully concluded at the end of February 2013 with the commercial launch of Telkom's new 20Mb/s and 40Mb/s broadband services taking place on 4 March 2013.
Telkom has also taken fibre directly into 3 150 office blocks and business parks, which is the start of decommissioning large copper cables that previously served these buildings. It says this has improved service to these office parks and buildings and reduced its exposure to, amongst other things, rampant cable theft, which has recently disrupted connectivity in the Randburg area.
Disrupted project
Early last year, Telkom was interdicted from implementing the tender for MSAN provision and concluding any service level agreement with the successful bidders, pending the outcome of an arbitration between Telkom and ZTE Mzansi. However, that ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal this March, allowing Telkom to move ahead with its network upgrade.
The tender was awarded to Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent in November 2011. However, neither the South African Communications Union (SACU) nor losing bidder ZTE Mzansi were happy with the company's network transformation plans.
Losing bidder ZTE Mzansi went to the North Gauteng High Court over the Telkom deal, because it believed Telkom's bidding process was not fair and the company's tender was never properly considered, despite complying with all of Telkom's requirements, including empowerment and technical capability.
At the time, SACU said it would meet with Telkom and "request a probe into [the] tender process, as well as the lack of transparency". Telkom decried ZTE's action, arguing it would disadvantage consumers and businesses as it would delay rollout.
The Supreme Court of Appeal held that it would be an unbusinesslike construction if Telkom was obliged to resolve disputes with multiple bidders by arbitration with varying awards before it could safely implement an award. It held up Telkom's procurement processes.
Moving ahead
Telkom says in a statement, issued yesterday, that the "major drive" to get fibre to office blocks and business parks will continue.
Since the commercial launch of the new broadband products, Telkom has expanded the 53 pilot sites and cut over 240 MSANs, which translates to 124 640 active ports on its next generation network.
The company plans to spend more than R10 billion in the next two years on rolling out the all IP network, which it will fund from cash generated by operations.
To fully test the newly deployed MSAN technology, Telkom also embarked on the fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-business (FTTH/B) technical proof of concept project. Five sites were identified and, at March 2013, it delivered the first 100Mb/s service to a business customer and residential customer.
MD of Wholesale and Networks, Bashier Sallie says that, apart from scoring a double century on number of MSAN's deployed, another 53 are ready to be rolled out in the near future together with a further four exchanges representing some 175 MSANs.
"We are highly satisfied with the rapidly increasing pace at which the new generation broadband network is being deployed," says Sallie.
Customers benefit by enjoying more reliable broadband at higher speeds and improved service delivery due to more sophisticated network management tools. "The rapid rollout of the MSAN technology is propelling our broadband strategy forward. More and more South Africans will now be able to access super-fast broadband speeds," notes Sallie.
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