Inflationary pressures are creeping into the telecommunications industry in South Africa. After recent price increases on some tariff plans by MTN and Vodacom, Telkom has followed suit with price bumps of its own.

The company said on Thursday that it is implementing increases to voice and fixed broadband tariffs and mobile services after what it called a “two-year price freeze”.

“Telkom will implement increases across fixed-line voice and broadband tariffs, and certain mobile tariffs and services, effective 1 August 2022,” the company said in a statement.

“This will be the first tariff increase in over two years, after Telkom’s commitment to aiding its customers and businesses during the hardships faced amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced South Africa into a lockdown on 26 March 2020.”

Describing the price increases as “essential”, Telkom said it will impose price hikes across all fixed-voice calling plans, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), copper DSL and Pure Connect products.

“As part of the tariff increase exercise we will also be adjusting the ADSL 1Mbit/s and 2Mbit/s speed and pricing to the 5Mbit/s product, as the former products are no longer available. Customers will get the benefits of the faster speed with the price adjustment,” the company said.

Small and medium enterprises will see increases on most legacy product subscription fees and will experience similar price increases on business DSL and bundle offerings, it added.

Out-of-bundle rates

On mobile, “certain tariffs will increase in monthly subscription costs”. However, these increases “will not impact mobile customers subscribing to products within the Smart Broadband Data Portfolio and current FreeMe mobile voice offerings”.

“There will, however, be an increase in out-of-bundle rates for mobile voice and data services, which will result in an increase on most tariffs. Voice rates for out-of-bundle consumption will increase from70c to 75c/minute and data rates will increase from 30c to 32c/MB.

Lunga Siyo, CEO of Telkom’s consumer business unit, said in the statement: “The imminent increase of tariffs across our fixed-voice, ADSL, FTTH and mobile offerings will enable us to continue to service our customers effectively … while ensuring that we remain competitive.” — © 2022 NewsCentral Media