Telkom has become the latest telecommunications operator to announce plans to hike its prices, with mobile, fibre, DSL and voice products all affected by the increases.

Mobile, DSL and voice products will see price hikes from 1 April, with fibre-to-the-home plans will see an average 11% jump in prices from 1 May. Most Telkom tariffs affected will rise by above-inflation percentages.

The increases come after Telkom announced plans to retrench up to 15% of its workforce in a cost-saving drive.

The price increases reverse a declining trend in voice and data prices in South Africa in recent years and come as South Africa’s telecoms operators battle to keep their infrastructure operating in the face of severe Eskom load shedding.

“With an inflation rate sitting at a record 13-year high, price increases are necessary and unavoidable to ensure long-term business sustainability,” Telkom said on Tuesday.

“The country’s economic challenges, including rising inflation, have made it necessary for Telkom to adjust prices to maintain the high level of service our customers have come to expect. The price increase also comes with continued improvement of our products even in challenging times,” said Telkom consumer and small business CEO Lunga Siyo in a statement.

The details

Legacy DSL and voice will see an overall average increase of 8.4%. The fixed voice portfolio will increase prices by an average of 8.8%. This encompasses all products related to line rental and calling plan tariffs. An 8% average price increase will be implemented across all DSL products, including expired and active bundles, Do Bundles (soft cap), Unlimited Home Lite bundles, Home Unlimited Premium bundles and DSL access-only services.

Fibre-to-the-home products will increase by an average of 11% overall. “This is mainly due to an increase in fees by our wholesale network operator (Telkom-owned Openserve). However, this increase in rates will be combined with an increase in speeds across the board. Consumers will therefore be getting more value with the increased prices.”

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For mobile customers, certain prices will increase on average by 5% in monthly subscription costs. However, Telkom said these increases only impact mobile customers subscribing to products within the SmartBroadband data portfolio.

Read: Telkom moves to stem cash drain

There will be an increase in several data bundles and out-of-bundle rates for mobile voice, SMS and data services, which will result in an increase on most tariffs. Voice rates for out-of-bundle consumption will increase from 75c to 80c/minute and data rates will increase from 32c to 35c/MB on most plans.