Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      World Bank set to back South Africa’s big energy grid roll-out

      20 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Sita hits back at critics, promises faster, automated procurement

      20 June 2025

      The transatlantic race to create the first television

      20 June 2025

      Listed: All the MVNOs in South Africa – 2025 edition

      19 June 2025
    • World

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025

      China is behind in AI chips – but for how much longer?

      13 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » News » Telkom in radical overhaul of fixed broadband

    Telkom in radical overhaul of fixed broadband

    By Duncan McLeod28 July 2017
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Attila Vitai

    Telkom is moving to shake up the broadband market in South Africa and arrest the decline in the number of fixed lines in service by slashing prices, doubling speeds, doing away with separate telephone line rentals, offering free bundled mobile data and offering unlimited free calls to customers.

    The radical overhaul, to be announced on Friday afternoon, looks set to spark renewed interest in the company’s broadband digital subscriber (DSL) and fibre-to-the-home products as competition in the fixed-line market, where Telkom historically enjoyed a monopoly, intensifies.

    TechCentral can reveal that Telkom will, over the next 30 days, double the speed of some lower-end DSL plans and offer free, unlimited on-network calls to all broadband users on its new “Unlimited Home” deals. It will also offer Sim cards, with bundled data — up to 3GB/month — to all subscribers to the new fixed-line plans. The free calls apply to those made to other Telkom fixed-line numbers as well as any of the four million users of its mobile network.

    We saw the success of FreeMe, and we’ve tried to replicate on fixed what we did on mobile

    The moves, which echo the radical mobile plans the company introduced last year called FreeMe, are likely to set the cat among the pigeons, especially the plan to offer unlimited free phone calls. “Data has fallen,” declared Attila Vitai, the CEO of Telkom’s consumer business, in an interview with TechCentral – a reference to a social media campaign by consumers for operators to reduce the price of Internet access in South Africa.

    The radical overhaul comes just a week after Openserve, Telkom’s wholesale division, announced sweeping price cuts to its wholesale broadband IP Connect pricing and to its fibre access portfolio. Those price cuts come on top of price reductions that Openserve announced in May and which took effect in June.

    Under a wide-ranging consent agreement with the Competition Commission, entered into in 2013, Telkom operates Openserve on an arm’s-length basis, with the wholesaler meant to serve the entire market of Internet service providers, including Telkom’s retail arm, on an equitable basis.

    ‘Listening to customers’

    “We have been listening to customers, not just here in South Africa, but looking at worldwide trends,” said Vitai. “I think the world over, consumers are worried about bill shock, the cost of using data, whether it’s mobile or fixed, and the only way realistically that customers feel at ease about using substantial volumes of data for video downloads and so on is if it’s unlimited.

    “We saw the success of FreeMe, and we’ve tried to replicate on fixed what we did on mobile,” he added. “We are giving people a great deal of value for a fixed price in terms of unlimited data at a certain speed, depending on which package you buy. We will give free Telkom on-net calls — unlimited as well. This is the end of people worrying about Telkom’s voice revenue decline.”

    Vitai said he is confident that the new plans will not only arrest the falling number of fixed lines in service, but has the potential to reverse the trend as consumers begin to see much greater value in having a wired connection at home.

    All the new plans offer unlimited data, with a high-bandwidth fair-use policy (FUP) — up to 6TB/month on a top-end plan — to prevent abuse. Even if consumers exceed the FUP, they may have their speeds throttled, but won’t be cut off from the Internet.

    From 31 August, existing uncapped customers will automatically be upgraded to the new Unlimited Home plans at higher speeds

    To sweeten the deal even more, the company has announced it will offer discounted calls to 30 top international destinations. The 20% discount means calls to the US and the UK, two popular destinations, will cost 50c/minute.

    TechCentral can reveal that Telkom customers on 2Mbit/s and 4Mbit/s plans will have their speeds boosted to 4Mbit/s and 10Mbit/s respectively. Those on higher-speed connections will see their monthly bills reduced. Telkom is also doing away with telephone line rental as a separate line item on bills.

    “From 31 August, existing uncapped customers will automatically be upgraded to the new Unlimited Home plans at higher speeds,” Telkom said.

    “Customers will be upgraded from 2Mbit/s to 4Mbit/s and from 4Mbit/s to 8Mbit/s or 10Mbit/s respectively. Customers will enjoy double the broadband speed and experience much higher fair-use policy values with minimal price increases compared to current packages. Significant price reductions have been applied to the 20Mbit/s, 40Mbit/s and 100Mbit/s Unlimited Home plans,” it said.

    The FUP starts at 360GB/month on the 4Mbit/s plan and goes up to 6TB/month on the 100Mbit/s fibre plan. Data used between midnight and 7am won’t count towards the FUP. The table below provides an overview of the new packages, which include all costs, including the cost of the line:

    “The packages, which are competitively priced by global standards, will open new unlimited gaming, streaming and downloading opportunities for South Africans for a standard monthly cost,” Telkom said.

    “We are trying to open up data communications to the masses. We are conscious of the digital divide and we are trying our best to bridge that,” Vitai told TechCentral.

    The new 4Mbit/s plan comes with a Sim preloaded with 1GB/month of mobile data, while the 10Mbit/s package comes with 2GB/month of mobile data. The 20Mbit/s, 40Mbit/s and 100Mbit/s plans come with 3GB/month each. The mobile data only works on Telkom’s network — roaming MTN data is not available.

    The new deals are permanent rather than promotional tariffs and have been filed with communications regulator Icasa, Vitai said.

    “We are hopeful that this will open up fixed-line communications to a larger market. This is what consumers want. It will have the impact of reducing churn … and will arrest the longer-term decline on the fixed-line side.”

    Telkom will begin doubling the speeds on the lower-end DSL plans immediately, with all upgrades expected to be completed within a month, Vitai said. — © 2017 NewsCentral Media



    Attila Vitai Openserve Telkom Telkom Unlimited Home top Unlimited Home
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticlePatrice Motsepe buys into LTE operator Rain
    Next Article Security key to IoT deployments

    Related Posts

    Listed: All the MVNOs in South Africa – 2025 edition

    19 June 2025

    MTN CEO edges Vodacom rival in pay stakes – but just barely

    18 June 2025

    TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

    16 June 2025
    Company News

    Making IT happen: how Trade Link gears up to enable SA retail strategies

    20 June 2025

    Why parents choose CambriLearn for online education

    19 June 2025

    Disrupt first, ask questions later – the uncomfortable truth about incident response

    18 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.