South African telecoms utility Telkom is to invest up to R30 billion in an upgrade to a next-generation network (NGN) by 2010, analysts heard at an investment community meeting in Pretoria this morning.
Telkom CFO Kaushik Patel revealed that 50% of the capex spend would be set aside for the NGN and customer centricity.
The investment, he said, is expected to deliver satisfactory returns for Telkom, with returns derived from revenue improvement, cost reductions, savings and protection benefits.
Patel noted that the company`s capital plan supports improvement of current service levels, with additional capital being planned for current service levels and growth of the network and customers, legacy networks improvement, resilience and reliability, NGN and accelerating the transformation of the network, customer centricity, refocusing on customers, and regulatory and legal compliance.
Pierre Marais, managing executive of network infrastructure provisioning, said Telkom would employ an evolutionary approach through the incremental roll-out of an NGN.
The replacement of legacy networks would be achieved through platform optimisation and reduction, as well as a complete replacement of high-cost and out-of-life networks, he said.
Commenting on the group`s objectives and goals for 2010, Marais said Telkom plans to attain an ICT-capable NGN network. Migration to an IP-based NGN would enable Telkom to provide a new range of services and converge voice, data and video as a means of generating incremental revenues.
"Network consolidation creates opportunities for significant cost-savings," he stated.
Also speaking at the event, Wally Beelders, chief sales and marketing officer, listed Telkom`s key strategies for achieving revenue retention and growth.
In terms of growing data and converged IP services, Telkom intends to introduce next-generation data services, increase DSL penetration by 20% of fixed-lines by 2010, introduce high-speed DSL services, and introduce broadband on demand, among others.
Its strategy for ISP-related services, Marais stated, includes enhancing current ISP services, introducing rich-media content and wholesale Internet offerings (dial-up, DSL and bandwidth products).
Telkom also plans to take advantage of fixed-mobile opportunities, he said, adding that it would leverage WiFi and WiMax voice portability opportunities, introduce dual-mode handsets and wireless home solutions.
Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane stated that, by 2010, Telkom aims to be a leading customer and employee-centred ICT solutions service provider, and also the ICT market leader in three countries outside SA.
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