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

      Blue Label Telecoms to change its name as restructuring gathers pace

      11 July 2025

      Get your ID delivered like pizza – home affairs’ latest digital shake-up

      11 July 2025

      EFF vows to stop Starlink from launching in South Africa

      11 July 2025

      Apple plans product blitz to reignite growth

      11 July 2025

      Nissan doubles down on South Africa despite plant uncertainty

      11 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025

      Grammarly acquires e-mail start-up Superhuman

      1 July 2025

      Apple considers ditching its own AI in Siri overhaul

      1 July 2025
    • In-depth

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

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

      20 June 2025

      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
    • TCS

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

      27 June 2025
    • Opinion

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      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
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • 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 » In-depth » Telkom’s Korean suitor talks fibre to the home

    Telkom’s Korean suitor talks fibre to the home

    By Editor17 October 2011
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Building fibre-to-the-home networks in SA makes sense, especially when these networks are built in dense urban areas. That’s the view of a senior executive at KT Corp (formerly Korea Telecom), which is in talks to buy 20% of Telkom.

    A small team of senior KT Corp managers is in Johannesburg this week to continue discussions with SA’s fixed-line incumbent operator. The executives sat down with TechCentral on Monday afternoon to talk about KT’s history and its plans to play a bigger role on the African continent.

    Hong-Jin Kim, KT’s senior executive vice-president, says of the company’s 7,6m Internet subscribers, 87% are connected via high-speed fibre-optic cables. Kim says in a market like SA’s, fibre to the home is a “great solution in dense areas” and should “definitely be considered”.

    However, he says fibre is not a solution to SA’s overarching connectivity challenges as the country is large compared to markets like Korea. Urban areas “would definitely benefit from [fibre to the home]”, he says.

    Kim says when it comes to connecting Africa, “a variety of solutions are needed”, including wireless, copper and fibre.

    KT, which was once owned by the Korean government, is already active in half a dozen African countries and views the continent as having great potential for investors.

    Kim says operators that start life as state-owned enterprises, but which are privatised — either fully or partially — still have “DNA” from being public entities. They remain “bureaucratic, slow and stubborn”.

    Kim has been tasked with changing KT and says the company has undergone enormous “transformation” in recent years.

    This transformation was started by KT’s CEO, Suk-Chae Lee, a former economist and former minister of communications, who has a “strong belief that we must change this company and drive it into the future because the telecoms sector is key to economic growth and for the country as a whole”.

    He says the challenges facing KT are common to all incumbent operators, particularly those in developed markets – especially stagnant revenues in the face of growing network traffic.

    “We have to balance infrastructure investment with optimising costs. We have to reduce operational complexity and move from operational expenditure to capital expenditure,” he says.

    In the days when it was state owned, KT was regarded as a technology provider for companies but is now repositioning itself as a consumer-focused enterprise. This success of this is evidenced by the fact that despite it’s never featured in an annual survey of Korean companies with the strongest brand value, in 2010 it was voted fifth.

    “KT was a ‘network operator’; now its a ‘business company’”, says Kim. He says an “operator just works within budget; we have to think beyond that”.

    “We are losing $500m a year in voice traffic,” he says. “The voice market is not sustainable. We need to slow down the decline curve and find ways to be more efficient.”

    Kim says traditional telecoms companies regard their networks as an “asset”. “But I believe it is a liability that requires lots of capital and operational expenditure that is basically money piled on top of garbage.”

    He says one of KT’s solutions has been to look to cloud computing (computing as a utility) to reduce capex and improve the company’s bottom line. It commissioned Ericsson and Samsung to help it build a cloud communication centre. “This kind of innovation is usually driven by vendors, but here we took the idea to the vendors.”  — Craig Wilson, TechCentral

    See also: Cosatu opposed to Telkom’s Korea deal and Analysts upbeat over Telkom’s Korea talks

    • Subscribe to our free daily newsletter
    • Follow us on Twitter or on Facebook
    • Visit our sister website, SportsCentral (still in beta)


    Hong-Jin Kim Korea Telecom KT Corp Suk-Chae Lee Telkom
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleCosatu opposed to Telkom’s Korea deal
    Next Article Telkom in the dock for putting squeeze on SA telecoms

    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

    $125-trillion traded: Binance redefines global finance in just eight years

    11 July 2025

    NEC XON welcomes HPE acquisition of Juniper Networks

    11 July 2025

    LTE Cat 1 vs Cat 1 bis – what’s the difference?

    11 July 2025
    Opinion

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

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

    17 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.