Telkom calls time on copper cabling
The telco group is shifting its customers to fibre and mobile — and is on the hunt for fibre-based acquisitions
Telkom is expected to phase out almost all its copper-based networks by 2020 as the telecommunications group steers towards newer technologies, says CEO Sipho Maseko."Copper is still quite big in the network, but I think over the next two to three years we’ll see an acceleration of that migration," says Maseko, adding that the company is preparing for the 2020s."We’re using, in a sense, 2018, 2019 and 2020 to get to a point where 90% of our network is ... either LTE [4G] or fibre, and we’ll be able to deliver a different experience for our customers."Telkom wants to shift customers off outdated copper-based broadband digital subscriber lines onto its faster fibre network and mobile offerings.It said in its annual results for the year to March that it has deployed more than 157,400km of fibre nationally, with more than 2.5m premises connected.In the year, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 3.6% to R10.5bn, though revenues accelerated in the second ha...
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