Telkom
Encyclopedia
Telkom Group Ltd. is a wireline and wireless telecommunications provider in South Africa
, and operating in more than 38 countries throughout the African continent. Telkom is a semi-privatised, 39% state-owned company.
_telkom_sa_headoffice.jpg)
in the Republic of South Africa was a single line telegraph connecting Cape Town
and Simonstown. After Bell Labs
' development of the telephone, the first undersea
links were introduced, first connecting Durban
and Europe, and soon after, the rest of the world. The network continued to develop through internal financing in a heavily regulated market as international technology developed. At this point, telephone services were operated by the South African Post Office
.
In the 1960s, South Africa was connected to 72 nations and total outgoing annual international calls numbered over 28,800.
In the 1990s, South Africa launched its mobile operations, underwritten by Telkom in partnership with Vodafone
. This subsidiary grew to be Vodacom
, which Telkom sold in late 2008 in preference for its own 3G network. Vodacom
has a subscriber base of more than R45M, with an average revenue per user
of more than R60 across both rural and urban subscribers. Vodacom, together with the other operators, have come under criticism in late 2009 by government and the public for high interconnect charges. This issue is currently being discussed by the Parliamentary Committee on Telecommunications.
In 2004, the Department of Communications redefined the Electronics Communications Act, which consilidated and redefined the landscape of telecommunications licensing in South Africa (both mobile and fixed). The Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) currently licenses more than 400 independent operators with the Electronic Communications Network License (with the ability to self-provision) as well as issuing Electronic Communications Service Licenses for service deployment over infrastructure in the retail domain.
Telkom is no longer the single operator in South Africa, and faces competition from the second Fixed Network Operator Licensee, Neotel, as well as the three mobile operators, Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C. However, it still receives criticisms (see later) from smaller operators and the Competition Commission for setting South African broadband pricing in its favour.
Cybernest focuses on Telkom's newly deployed DCO infrastructure in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, as well as services thereupon, including data hosting, LAN and application management and managing IT infrastructure for corporate and large business customers.
Telkom International focuses on Telkom's growth into the African continent, most predominantly, its investment into Multilinks, Africa Online and MWEB Africa.
Jeffrey Hedberg was appointed Acting Group Chief Executive Officer on 7 July 2010 following Reuben September's resignation. Jeffrey was the CEO of Cell C
from 2006-2009. However, on the 13 January 2011, TechCentral reported that Hedberg will quit Telkom by the end of March 2011, citing that he felt that he would not be given the mandate he needed to fix Telkom commercially and operationally.
The mandate to control Telkom's corporate (and business) strategy was managed by the South African Government - a Class-A shareholder in the privately listed Company. It is speculated that Government is intending Telkom to "to play a more active role in the rest of Africa". Telkom's performance in Africa has been less than spectacular, reporting a significant goodwill impairment in 2010 of its Nigerian operations.
Telkom has recently been rocked by speculation of corruption in terms of poor procurement practice, nepotism and mismanagement and the uncertainty around fired COO, Motlasti Nzeku, whose future at the operator remains uncertain.
) from 1997 to 2004. SBC has since sold its interest in the company, after reducing operational expenditure (reducing staff resources, etc.) and increasing revenue by increased product prices, thereby increasing the share-price for greater ROI.
The company is currently the market leader in the broadband space, with more than 500,000 customers on 384 kbit/s - 4 Mbyte/s DSL; it dominates the managed services market and has more than 250 corporate customers on its order book. Telkom SA operates 4.5M fixed access lines, bases on its 2008 annual report.
and fiber optic loops, and wireless connections.
The routing
and bill
ing system were almost completely digital by the mid 1980s, which made way for the currently used systems of ME
, NG-SDH, ADSL, WiMAX d, ATM
and others.
) is an initiative to connect countries of eastern Africa via a high bandwidth fibre optic cable system to the rest of the world. Seacom is a privately funded venture which built, owns, and operates a submarine fibre-optic cable connecting communication carriers in south and east Africa. SAT-3/WASC or South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable is a submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route. It forms part of the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE cable system, where the SAFE cable links South Africa to Asia. The South Africa Far East cable is an optical fiber submarine communications cable linking Melkbosstrand, South Africa to Penang, Malaysia.
to consumers, and through Telkom Wholesale to ISP's. All ISPs in South Africa utilise Telkom's copper infrastructure as described below.
Telkom provides ADSL with POTS
. According to Telkom's figures, 92% of exchanges have been upgraded to support ADSL. http://telkom.investoreports.com/telkom_ar_2008/html/telkom_ar_2008_5.php Telkom is currently the largest provider of fixed-line broadband in the country, with 412 190 subscribers according to the 2008 annual report.
Telkom ADSL is billed as an add-on service to a POTS voice line. A PPPoE account, which can be provided by most Internet Service Provider
s (ISPs), must be purchased separately to the ADSL connection for internet access. ISPs are divided into two categories, those who purchase IPConnect from Telkom and those who resell PPPoE accounts from IPConnect ISPs or Telkom themselves. IPConnect is a Telkom product allowing ISPs to route internet bandwidth from their ADSL subscribers over their own bandwidth.
Three connection rate ranges are offered (associated with different connection fees) which are "Fast" (256/64 - 384/128 kbit/s), "Faster" (512/256 kbit/s - 1024/512 kbit/s), "Fastest" 4096/512 (ADSL) / 10016/1002 kbit/s (ADSL2+)) of bandwidth
for downstream/upstream respectively. The actual speed obtained can vary depending on line conditions.
Telkom have released an 10 Mbit ADSL 2+ service for a limited amount of "Fastest" users on 15 August 2010.
As of May 2011, "Faster" (512 kbit/s) users started reporing speed upgrades to 1 Mbit/s (1024 kbit/s) on their ADSL Lines.
Telkom (unlike many ISPs) limits data usage per calendar month, with the limit depending on the package purchased. TelkomInternet (SAIX
) offers bandwidth shaped 1 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB packages(as of 1 October 2011) and a 4 GB unshaped services. Packages offering thirty gigabytes as well as "uncapped" (unlimited data usage) have also recently been made available.
Telkom fully entered the South African Cellular market as 8ta
. The public launch of the network took place on 14 October 2010 and products have been available since 18 October 2010, supporting both GSM and 3G services. The 3G Network supports speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s (HSPA
) while the GSM network is fully EDGE
enable. Telkom will be roaming on the MTN
network outside its coverage.
Trudon is the largest directory publisher in South Africa providing white and yellow pages directory services and electronic white pages.
Swiftnet operates under the name Fastnet Wireless Service. Fastnet is a wireless network providing asynchronous wireless access on Telkom's X.25 network, Saponet-P, to its customer base.
http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/group_structure.html
access in the Republic. Competitors to the land-line monopoly have flourished, with special note given to providers of wireless broadband, who provide greater geographical penetration, by means of the technology used, than Telkom. Examples of these providers include Sentech, an extension of the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation
, and WBS
Co., a black owned
enterprise. On the 31st August 2006, Neotel
(Second Network Operator) announced the launch of its services as the second national operator, initially offering wholesale international services, with plans to expand to business & residential customers within months. Neotel plans to initially use CDMA-2000 wireless technology for the last mile infrastructure due to the government and ICASA's (the regulator) inability and unwillingness to unbundle the local-loop, leading some to suggest that it's not much more than a cellular operator instead of the much needed competitor to Telkom.
The three mobile telephone networks in South Africa, listed in terms of numbers of subscribers, are Vodacom
(who both Telkom - until recently - and the United Kingdom
's Vodafone
own large stakes in), MTN and Cell C
. There are several service providers, such as Virgin Mobile and Nashua Mobile, which subscribers can use to access the networks. There are approximately six times as many cellphone subscribers than land line subscribers in South Africa (30 million versus 5 million), and since these networks route their calls over their own network, GSM providers have taken a large chunk of Telkom's business.
Another promising technology is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which may decrease the amount of calls made over the public switched telephone network
(PSTN) in the near future. Telkom's international calling rates are already far undercut by VoIP providers.
Finally, although the Government are taking steps to liberalise the market, laws regarding telecommunications are still quite restrictive relative to the United States and other developed nations.
An example of restrictive legislation is the Draft Convergence Bill, which attempts to control the development of such commerce.
Telkom is currently under much fire from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
(ICASA), who accused it of excessive ADSL line charges.
. It is expanding its service portfolio across managed voice, managed data, IT services & applications, and diversifying into new revenue growth opportunities in adjacent markets.
Recent acquisitions of Keynan ISP Africa Online, and Nigerian mobile operator Multi-Links gives Telkom strategic hubs to expand data and voice services into Africa. Africa Online (AFOL) is a Pan African Internet Service Provider operating in eight countries with the 9th country through a joint-venture with Verizon South Africa. Multi-Links is a private telecommunications operator (as of 2009 a wholly owned Telkom subsidiary) with a Unified Access License allowing fixed, mobile, data, long distance and international telecommunications services focused primarily on corporate clients in Nigeria.
Via Africa Online, Telkom intends leveraging its international capacity to deploy satellite based Internet access. Through Multi-Links, Telkom is introducing converged fixed and mobile services to the Nigerian market.
(or less when buying data bundles) GPRS, EDGE
, 3G
, and HSDPA services have become increasingly popular for email and light browsing. Buying data bundles of up to 2 GB
is now more affordable than Telkom's entry-level packages. Virgin Mobile currently charges data at 50c (US 7c) per MB without offering data bundles plus reportedly under charges and offer V Rewards for higher usage customers.
The continuing monopoly of Telkom in South Africa's communications industry, and government's large stake in the company, have been perceived as not being in the public's best interests. Call costs are high, and the South African telecommunications regulator ICASA is overburdened and restricted in its capabilities as handed down by the Department of Communications. The elderly minister of communications has a penchant for falling asleep during meetings and by her own admission "only hears about rate changes when her friends tell her". Telkom has a monopoly of all international calls originating within South Africa excluding VoIP, and of traffic over the SAT3 cable that provides most of South Africa's international bandwidth. The indecision over the second network operator Neotel
, to Telkom's advantage, is also not considered to be in the public interest.
Telkom has also attracted attention for improperly conducting itself in a contract dispute with Telcordia on account of non-delivery of an integrated FlowThru solution, resulting in a decision from the Supreme Court of Appeal
against its favor in which the judge described Telkom's legal team as conducting "verbal manipulation". http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/bottomline.aspx?ID=BD4A327273
On 19 January 2007, a full-page advertisement was taken out in The Mail and Guardian, a national South African newspaper
. Money for the ad was donated by dissatisfied South African individuals and businesses. The page was used as a public outcry, detailing some of the things Telkom has done in hopes of bringing more attention to the current situation in South Africa's telecoms industry. The effort was organised by the Telecoms Action Group, TAG.
(P2P) applications and network-intense online game
s often slowed down the network dramatically, preventing users who wished to browse web pages or check their mail to do so in a short space of time. Port prioritization solves this problem as it prioritizes certain ports for certain applications. It works according to a protocol which includes all ports and applications generally used in conjunction with them. These ports are sorted into a list of sorts. At the top of the list appear web browsing and email. These ports and the applications which use them receive the most bandwidth from the network. At the very bottom of the list are peer to peer applications, online games and virtual private networking (VPN). These receive very little if not no bandwidth from the network. Being unable to establish international VPN connections on the standard package has a detrimental effect on international freelancers who must pay for the much more expensive 'unshaped' service. Although it is the ideal solution for large companies, there is no choice in the shaping matter. Personal connections to the internet also get shaped. This has caused an uproar in the South African P2P and online gaming community as one has to pay over exorbitant prices (roughly two times more) to get their connections "unshaped."
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, and operating in more than 38 countries throughout the African continent. Telkom is a semi-privatised, 39% state-owned company.
History of telecommunications in South Africa
The first use of telecommunicationTelecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
in the Republic of South Africa was a single line telegraph connecting Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
and Simonstown. After Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
' development of the telephone, the first undersea
Submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean....
links were introduced, first connecting Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
and Europe, and soon after, the rest of the world. The network continued to develop through internal financing in a heavily regulated market as international technology developed. At this point, telephone services were operated by the South African Post Office
South African Post Office
South African Post Office or SAPO is the national postal service of South Africa and is owned by the South African government. It employs over 17,000 people and operates more than 2,400 postal outlets throughout the country.-History:...
.
In the 1960s, South Africa was connected to 72 nations and total outgoing annual international calls numbered over 28,800.
In the 1990s, South Africa launched its mobile operations, underwritten by Telkom in partnership with Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
. This subsidiary grew to be Vodacom
Vodacom
Vodacom is a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, and was the 1st cellular network in South Africa. It provides GSM service to more than 35 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Revenue for the year ended 31 March 2008...
, which Telkom sold in late 2008 in preference for its own 3G network. Vodacom
Vodacom
Vodacom is a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, and was the 1st cellular network in South Africa. It provides GSM service to more than 35 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Revenue for the year ended 31 March 2008...
has a subscriber base of more than R45M, with an average revenue per user
Average revenue per user
Average revenue per user usually abbreviated to ARPU is a measure used primarily by consumer communications and networking companies, defined as the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers....
of more than R60 across both rural and urban subscribers. Vodacom, together with the other operators, have come under criticism in late 2009 by government and the public for high interconnect charges. This issue is currently being discussed by the Parliamentary Committee on Telecommunications.
In 2004, the Department of Communications redefined the Electronics Communications Act, which consilidated and redefined the landscape of telecommunications licensing in South Africa (both mobile and fixed). The Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) currently licenses more than 400 independent operators with the Electronic Communications Network License (with the ability to self-provision) as well as issuing Electronic Communications Service Licenses for service deployment over infrastructure in the retail domain.
Telkom is no longer the single operator in South Africa, and faces competition from the second Fixed Network Operator Licensee, Neotel, as well as the three mobile operators, Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C. However, it still receives criticisms (see later) from smaller operators and the Competition Commission for setting South African broadband pricing in its favour.
Telkom group structure
Telkom SA is structured under Group CEO, Nombulelo Moholi, into three main business units, namely Telkom Business (under MD Dr Brian Armstrong), Consumer Marketing (under MD Manelisa Mavuso) and Wholesale and Networks (under MD Bashier Sallie). Further divisions under the Group include Telkom International, Telkom Mobile and Cybernest.Cybernest focuses on Telkom's newly deployed DCO infrastructure in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, as well as services thereupon, including data hosting, LAN and application management and managing IT infrastructure for corporate and large business customers.
Telkom International focuses on Telkom's growth into the African continent, most predominantly, its investment into Multilinks, Africa Online and MWEB Africa.
Jeffrey Hedberg was appointed Acting Group Chief Executive Officer on 7 July 2010 following Reuben September's resignation. Jeffrey was the CEO of Cell C
Cell C
Cell C is South Africa’s third cell network after Vodacom and MTN, and the first cellular provider operating a dual band GSM 900/1800 MHz network, with over 7,4-million subscribers according to recent reports in Business Day and myadsl...
from 2006-2009. However, on the 13 January 2011, TechCentral reported that Hedberg will quit Telkom by the end of March 2011, citing that he felt that he would not be given the mandate he needed to fix Telkom commercially and operationally.
The mandate to control Telkom's corporate (and business) strategy was managed by the South African Government - a Class-A shareholder in the privately listed Company. It is speculated that Government is intending Telkom to "to play a more active role in the rest of Africa". Telkom's performance in Africa has been less than spectacular, reporting a significant goodwill impairment in 2010 of its Nigerian operations.
Telkom has recently been rocked by speculation of corruption in terms of poor procurement practice, nepotism and mismanagement and the uncertainty around fired COO, Motlasti Nzeku, whose future at the operator remains uncertain.
Telkom market position and ownership
Telkom was managed by US-based SBC Communications (now AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
) from 1997 to 2004. SBC has since sold its interest in the company, after reducing operational expenditure (reducing staff resources, etc.) and increasing revenue by increased product prices, thereby increasing the share-price for greater ROI.
The company is currently the market leader in the broadband space, with more than 500,000 customers on 384 kbit/s - 4 Mbyte/s DSL; it dominates the managed services market and has more than 250 corporate customers on its order book. Telkom SA operates 4.5M fixed access lines, bases on its 2008 annual report.
Infrastructure
According to the World Factbook, it is the "best developed and most modern in Africa". It consists of local copper loops, microwaveMicrowave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
and fiber optic loops, and wireless connections.
The routing
Routing
Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of networks, including the telephone network , electronic data networks , and transportation networks...
and bill
Bill (payment)
A bill or invoice is a document requesting payment for an order previously supplied. Presentation of a bill is common practice on the part of credit card companies, utilities, and other service providers...
ing system were almost completely digital by the mid 1980s, which made way for the currently used systems of ME
Metro Ethernet
A Metro Ethernet is a computer network that covers a metropolitan area and that is based on the Ethernet standard. It is commonly used as a metropolitan access network to connect subscribers and businesses to a larger service network or the Internet...
, NG-SDH, ADSL, WiMAX d, ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
and others.
Undersea cables
The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSyEASSY
The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System is an undersea fibre optic cable system connecting countries of eastern Africa to the rest of the world....
) is an initiative to connect countries of eastern Africa via a high bandwidth fibre optic cable system to the rest of the world. Seacom is a privately funded venture which built, owns, and operates a submarine fibre-optic cable connecting communication carriers in south and east Africa. SAT-3/WASC or South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable is a submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route. It forms part of the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE cable system, where the SAFE cable links South Africa to Asia. The South Africa Far East cable is an optical fiber submarine communications cable linking Melkbosstrand, South Africa to Penang, Malaysia.
Telkom ADSL
Telkom provides ADSL retail services via their ISP DoBroadbandDoBroadband
DoBroadband is South Africa's largest ISP and operates as a consumer division of Telecoms encumbent Telkom....
to consumers, and through Telkom Wholesale to ISP's. All ISPs in South Africa utilise Telkom's copper infrastructure as described below.
Telkom provides ADSL with POTS
Plain old telephone service
Plain old telephone service is the voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world....
. According to Telkom's figures, 92% of exchanges have been upgraded to support ADSL. http://telkom.investoreports.com/telkom_ar_2008/html/telkom_ar_2008_5.php Telkom is currently the largest provider of fixed-line broadband in the country, with 412 190 subscribers according to the 2008 annual report.
Telkom ADSL is billed as an add-on service to a POTS voice line. A PPPoE account, which can be provided by most Internet Service Provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s (ISPs), must be purchased separately to the ADSL connection for internet access. ISPs are divided into two categories, those who purchase IPConnect from Telkom and those who resell PPPoE accounts from IPConnect ISPs or Telkom themselves. IPConnect is a Telkom product allowing ISPs to route internet bandwidth from their ADSL subscribers over their own bandwidth.
Three connection rate ranges are offered (associated with different connection fees) which are "Fast" (256/64 - 384/128 kbit/s), "Faster" (512/256 kbit/s - 1024/512 kbit/s), "Fastest" 4096/512 (ADSL) / 10016/1002 kbit/s (ADSL2+)) of bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
for downstream/upstream respectively. The actual speed obtained can vary depending on line conditions.
Telkom have released an 10 Mbit ADSL 2+ service for a limited amount of "Fastest" users on 15 August 2010.
As of May 2011, "Faster" (512 kbit/s) users started reporing speed upgrades to 1 Mbit/s (1024 kbit/s) on their ADSL Lines.
Telkom (unlike many ISPs) limits data usage per calendar month, with the limit depending on the package purchased. TelkomInternet (SAIX
Saix
Saix or Saïx has several meanings:*Saïx, a commune of the Tarn department in France*Saïx, a fictional character in Kingdom Hearts II*South African Internet Exchange, an Internet Exchange Point...
) offers bandwidth shaped 1 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB packages(as of 1 October 2011) and a 4 GB unshaped services. Packages offering thirty gigabytes as well as "uncapped" (unlimited data usage) have also recently been made available.
Telkom 3G
Telkom had 3G products supporting at least 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA available since 2008. The coverage was initially limited to a small part of the country.Telkom fully entered the South African Cellular market as 8ta
8ta
8ta is a South African mobile telecommunications company. 8ta was launched in October 2010 and is owned by Telkom. 8ta phone numbers use the 0811 to 0814 dialling prefixes...
. The public launch of the network took place on 14 October 2010 and products have been available since 18 October 2010, supporting both GSM and 3G services. The 3G Network supports speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s (HSPA
High Speed Packet Access
High Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access and High Speed Uplink Packet Access , that extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA protocols...
) while the GSM network is fully EDGE
Edge
- Aviation :* Leading edge, a line connecting the forward-most points of a wing's profile* Trailing edge, the rear edge of the wing* Zivko Edge 540, an aerobatic aircraft- Mathematics, science and technology :...
enable. Telkom will be roaming on the MTN
MTN
MTN may refer to:* MTN Group, a major South Africa-based mobile telephone network operator active in many African and Middle Eastern countries* Maritime Telecommunications Network, a mobile phone network that operates on sea vessels like cruise liners...
network outside its coverage.
Local subsidiaries
Telkom Group Limited has the following South African subsidiaries, Trudon (previously TDS Directory Operations) and Swiftnet, trading as Fastnet.Trudon is the largest directory publisher in South Africa providing white and yellow pages directory services and electronic white pages.
Swiftnet operates under the name Fastnet Wireless Service. Fastnet is a wireless network providing asynchronous wireless access on Telkom's X.25 network, Saponet-P, to its customer base.
http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/group_structure.html
Competition
Recent legislation passed by the South African government have lowered many restrictions on companies wishing to provide telecommunicationTelecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
access in the Republic. Competitors to the land-line monopoly have flourished, with special note given to providers of wireless broadband, who provide greater geographical penetration, by means of the technology used, than Telkom. Examples of these providers include Sentech, an extension of the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation
South African Broadcasting Corporation
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is the state-owned broadcaster in South Africa and provides 18 radio stations as well as 3 television broadcasts to the general public.-Early years:Radio broadcasting began in South Africa in 1923...
, and WBS
WBS
WBS may refer to:* WebChat Broadcasting System, a virtual community* Warwick Business School, the largest academic department of the University of Warwick* Ward-Beck Systems, Canadian manufacturer of Audio and Video equipment...
Co., a black owned
Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment is a programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups economic opportunities previously not available to them...
enterprise. On the 31st August 2006, Neotel
Neotel
Neotel Ltd., previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on August 31, 2006 in Kyalami in northern Johannesburg...
(Second Network Operator) announced the launch of its services as the second national operator, initially offering wholesale international services, with plans to expand to business & residential customers within months. Neotel plans to initially use CDMA-2000 wireless technology for the last mile infrastructure due to the government and ICASA's (the regulator) inability and unwillingness to unbundle the local-loop, leading some to suggest that it's not much more than a cellular operator instead of the much needed competitor to Telkom.
The three mobile telephone networks in South Africa, listed in terms of numbers of subscribers, are Vodacom
Vodacom
Vodacom is a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, and was the 1st cellular network in South Africa. It provides GSM service to more than 35 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Revenue for the year ended 31 March 2008...
(who both Telkom - until recently - and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
own large stakes in), MTN and Cell C
Cell C
Cell C is South Africa’s third cell network after Vodacom and MTN, and the first cellular provider operating a dual band GSM 900/1800 MHz network, with over 7,4-million subscribers according to recent reports in Business Day and myadsl...
. There are several service providers, such as Virgin Mobile and Nashua Mobile, which subscribers can use to access the networks. There are approximately six times as many cellphone subscribers than land line subscribers in South Africa (30 million versus 5 million), and since these networks route their calls over their own network, GSM providers have taken a large chunk of Telkom's business.
Another promising technology is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which may decrease the amount of calls made over the public switched telephone network
Public switched telephone network
The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by...
(PSTN) in the near future. Telkom's international calling rates are already far undercut by VoIP providers.
Finally, although the Government are taking steps to liberalise the market, laws regarding telecommunications are still quite restrictive relative to the United States and other developed nations.
An example of restrictive legislation is the Draft Convergence Bill, which attempts to control the development of such commerce.
Telkom is currently under much fire from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the public interest....
(ICASA), who accused it of excessive ADSL line charges.
Pan African operations
Telkom operates in 38 countries in Africa, from regional hubs in Nigeria and Kenya via an integrated service provider strategy. It is expanding its service portfolio across managed voice, managed data, IT services & applications, and diversifying into new revenue growth opportunities in adjacent markets.
Recent acquisitions of Keynan ISP Africa Online, and Nigerian mobile operator Multi-Links gives Telkom strategic hubs to expand data and voice services into Africa. Africa Online (AFOL) is a Pan African Internet Service Provider operating in eight countries with the 9th country through a joint-venture with Verizon South Africa. Multi-Links is a private telecommunications operator (as of 2009 a wholly owned Telkom subsidiary) with a Unified Access License allowing fixed, mobile, data, long distance and international telecommunications services focused primarily on corporate clients in Nigeria.
Via Africa Online, Telkom intends leveraging its international capacity to deploy satellite based Internet access. Through Multi-Links, Telkom is introducing converged fixed and mobile services to the Nigerian market.
Monopoly and state ownership
High cost of Internet access is a major point of consumer frustration in South Africa. Telkom's monopoly, backed by ANC government investment, over fixed line provision and international access is often pointed out as the primary reason for the high costs of telecommunications. In light of the high cost of entry, many broadband users have settled for cellular alternatives instead. At R2 (US 30c) per MBMegabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
(or less when buying data bundles) GPRS, EDGE
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM...
, 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
, and HSDPA services have become increasingly popular for email and light browsing. Buying data bundles of up to 2 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
is now more affordable than Telkom's entry-level packages. Virgin Mobile currently charges data at 50c (US 7c) per MB without offering data bundles plus reportedly under charges and offer V Rewards for higher usage customers.
The continuing monopoly of Telkom in South Africa's communications industry, and government's large stake in the company, have been perceived as not being in the public's best interests. Call costs are high, and the South African telecommunications regulator ICASA is overburdened and restricted in its capabilities as handed down by the Department of Communications. The elderly minister of communications has a penchant for falling asleep during meetings and by her own admission "only hears about rate changes when her friends tell her". Telkom has a monopoly of all international calls originating within South Africa excluding VoIP, and of traffic over the SAT3 cable that provides most of South Africa's international bandwidth. The indecision over the second network operator Neotel
Neotel
Neotel Ltd., previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on August 31, 2006 in Kyalami in northern Johannesburg...
, to Telkom's advantage, is also not considered to be in the public interest.
Telkom has also attracted attention for improperly conducting itself in a contract dispute with Telcordia on account of non-delivery of an integrated FlowThru solution, resulting in a decision from the Supreme Court of Appeal
Supreme Court of Appeal
Supreme Court of Appeal may refer to:*The Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa.*The Newfoundland Supreme Court of Appeal.*The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.It may also refer to other Courts of Appeal....
against its favor in which the judge described Telkom's legal team as conducting "verbal manipulation". http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/bottomline.aspx?ID=BD4A327273
On 19 January 2007, a full-page advertisement was taken out in The Mail and Guardian, a national South African newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
. Money for the ad was donated by dissatisfied South African individuals and businesses. The page was used as a public outcry, detailing some of the things Telkom has done in hopes of bringing more attention to the current situation in South Africa's telecoms industry. The effort was organised by the Telecoms Action Group, TAG.
ADSL capping
Perhaps one of the biggest criticisms of Telkom was its introduction of a monthly traffic limit or "cap". According to Telkom, this was a measure instituted in order for the South African network not to become "congested" with an overflow of information. However, the general feeling in the South African ADSL community is that monthly traffic limits were strategically put in place by Telkom in order to obtain the maximum amount of money from ADSL users. This is mainly because Telkom offers extra bandwidth to users for a price. If the limit is exceeded during the course of the month, the ADSL connection is capped, denying international access to the web, while allowing access to local websites, until the end of the month. The user can purchase extra GBs after he/she is capped however. The typical monthly traffic limits can be used up in less than a day, even on low-speed lines.Shaping
Another major criticism of Telkom was its institution of port prioritization or "shaping". This also was a measure introduced by Telkom in order for networks throughout South Africa not to become congested with too much information. However, port prioritization was an idea conceived mainly to benefit businesses in which employees all shared the same internet connection. Employees who used "bandwidth hogging" applications such as peer-to-peerPeer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
(P2P) applications and network-intense online game
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
s often slowed down the network dramatically, preventing users who wished to browse web pages or check their mail to do so in a short space of time. Port prioritization solves this problem as it prioritizes certain ports for certain applications. It works according to a protocol which includes all ports and applications generally used in conjunction with them. These ports are sorted into a list of sorts. At the top of the list appear web browsing and email. These ports and the applications which use them receive the most bandwidth from the network. At the very bottom of the list are peer to peer applications, online games and virtual private networking (VPN). These receive very little if not no bandwidth from the network. Being unable to establish international VPN connections on the standard package has a detrimental effect on international freelancers who must pay for the much more expensive 'unshaped' service. Although it is the ideal solution for large companies, there is no choice in the shaping matter. Personal connections to the internet also get shaped. This has caused an uproar in the South African P2P and online gaming community as one has to pay over exorbitant prices (roughly two times more) to get their connections "unshaped."
See also
- HellkomHellkomHellkom is an Internet parody site about Telkom, South Africa's telecommunications monopoly. It was started in June 2004 as a protest to the telecoms parastatal's excessive pricing for its services by Gregg Stirton. In April 2009, Stirton started a discussion forum named BBLounge to complement the...
- SAIXSaixSaix or Saïx has several meanings:*Saïx, a commune of the Tarn department in France*Saïx, a fictional character in Kingdom Hearts II*South African Internet Exchange, an Internet Exchange Point...
(The South African Internet Exchange) - MyBroadbandMyBroadbandMyBroadband.co.za is an online group , providing South African Internet users with a central vantage point for information on broadband services in the country...
- NeotelNeotelNeotel Ltd., previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on August 31, 2006 in Kyalami in northern Johannesburg...
- South African Telephone Numbering PlanSouth African Telephone Numbering PlanCountry Code: +27International Call Prefix: 00Trunk Prefix: 0South Africa has switched to a closed numbering system. From 16 January 2007 it became mandatory to dial the full 10 digit telephone number including the three-digit area code even for local calls. The trunk prefix is still '0', with the...
- South African Communication Landmarks