Telkom embraces Infraco

By Damaria Senne for Telkom
Johannesburg, 30 Oct 2006

Telkom welcomes competition from the Infrastructure Company (Infraco), formed by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), and is taking measures to ensure it stays competitive, it says.

The DPE previously stated that Infraco would provide national long-distance and international broadband services, with the aim of reducing pricing to significantly lower levels as compared to Telkom within five years.

"While Infraco is potential competition [in the provision of national long-distance broadband], Telkom welcomes competition in the ICT industry and the expansion of broadband access to a broader section of South African society," says Telkom`s group executive for corporate communications, Lulu Letlape.

As a company, Telkom welcomes competition at all levels, whether it is in providing services to other service providers or directly to consumers, she says.

Edwin Thompson, chairman of the Communications Users Association, says it is about time the cost of national long-distance broadband comes under the spotlight.

He notes that while a lot of attention has focused on international bandwidth costs and the role of the SAT-3 undersea cable, the fact of the matter is that local bandwidth costs are also too high.

"Proportionally speaking, the cost to connect from Johannesburg to Cape Town is higher than the cost to connect from Johannesburg to London," he says.

Sentech CEO Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane notes that Infraco adds to the number of entities that Sentech has to access bandwidth, forcing competition in the market so tariffs come down.

Letlape points out that Telkom is involved in strategies that will enable the company to provide end-to-end technology to its customers. Telkom is embarking on the capital investment for its network infrastructure in order to stay competitive, she adds.

The evolution to the next-generation network will enable a plethora of new services and applications in the broadband space, says Letlape.