Telkom: September gone - Hedberg acting CEO

Skerminkel said:
Can we allow this? This Hedberg fellow is surely too white to run a state utility company in SA!
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Old article... http://www.nerdboys.co.za/2009/03/17/who-is-jeffrey-hedberg/
After studying business at Northeastern University and international relations and management at the University of Denver, Jeffery moved to London to work at US Wests’ international division. In 1992 he started working at Coopers and Lybrand and in 1994 he was named head of international operations at Swiss National phone company Swisscom, becoming the youngest member of the management board. In 1999 Hedberg joined the management of German Deustche Telekom and its became the chief of international activates.

In 2006 he replaced Talaat Laham as the CEO of South Africa’s third cell phone operator, joining the comapny when Cell C where in R300 million in loss. In less than 3 years Hedberg has influenced Cell C to make an operating profit of R320 million, which amounts to over a R600 million turnaround.

With those credentials the rumors that Telkom want Hedberg to join the company could very well be based on fact.
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Garyvdh said:
haha... what are they going to need to consult him for until 1 November???

Best Windows Solitaire moves? How to look busy while faffing around in the office? How to use technical language to make it appear as if you know stuff? :D
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Justification for the bonus/extended pay whatever oink oink
 
Telkom needs to secure it's Fixed Line market which from what I understand is about 4 Million or more subscribers and in my opinion here lies the key to their growth if it is possible.
Provide a new service to your existing customers which incorporates a Cell Phone and Land Line Phone into one simple gadget / phone that will link to a Dect Repeater / PABX Box around your property where your phone line is and everywhere else to the National grid of roaming agreements or something like that. Now that would be awesome!
 
Good decision.

Good decision to put Jeffrey into this position. He knows the market and has a lot of experience in turning companies around. Cell C is a prime example. He also brings a lot of overseas experience along.

First thing he needs to do is to insist that government gets out of his business. Sell their shares so he can focus on running Telkom his way and not having to run to the government or have them interfere before he can do what he needs to do.

Next thing he needs to do though is to scrap the dsl access charge and open up the local loop. Maybe even lease out the local loop to competitors based on the number of connections they make to his customers.

Following that launch Telkom Mobile. Free calls between Telkom landlines and Telkom mobile. Charge to call other networks. He could take some ideas from the US market such as Sprint where you can call any mobile, any time for $69.99 or T-Mobile where you can call anyone on the network for free and have a few favorite numbers which you can call for free no matter if they are cell numbers or land line numbers.

He should look into splitting up Telkom into two separate entities, one being Telkom Wholesale and the other Telkom Retail. Telkom Wholesale will have to provide services to any telecoms company at the same rate that they provide to Telkom Retail enabling everyone to compete at the same level.

Finally look into launching a company where Telkom will train employees in the latest technologies available, customer service and other applicable applications which most if not all telcos use. Then when these telcos need those services, Telkom can provide them at competitive rates. Telkom will also have to pay for those services.

Just my two cents.
 
zaknight said:
Good decision to put Jeffrey into this position. He knows the market and has a lot of experience in turning companies around. Cell C is a prime example. He also brings a lot of overseas experience along.
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Great post!!!

First thing he needs to do is to insist that government gets out of his business. Sell their shares so he can focus on running Telkom his way and not having to run to the government or have them interfere before he can do what he needs to do.
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While I share your sentiment, I don't think he will get it right; not in the short term anyway.

Next thing he needs to do though is to scrap the dsl access charge and open up the local loop. Maybe even lease out the local loop to competitors based on the number of connections they make to his customers.
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Fair call and probably will be done by, or in, 2012.

Following that launch Telkom Mobile. Free calls between Telkom landlines and Telkom mobile. Charge to call other networks. He could take some ideas from the US market such as Sprint where you can call any mobile, any time for $69.99 or T-Mobile where you can call anyone on the network for free and have a few favorite numbers which you can call for free no matter if they are cell numbers or land line numbers.
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Telkom Mobile will be launching around September this year (pardon the pun). So it will precede LLU.

He should look into splitting up Telkom into two separate entities, one being Telkom Wholesale and the other Telkom Retail. Telkom Wholesale will have to provide services to any telecoms company at the same rate that they provide to Telkom Retail enabling everyone to compete at the same level.
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Telkom are already busy doing this split and are quite far in their efforts. They are already providing wholesale services at the same rate, internally and externally. Where they benefit is with the bundling of these services with fixed line services, which they monopolise as Neotel has not bothered to challenge them in that area.

Finally look into launching a company where Telkom will train employees in the latest technologies available, customer service and other applicable applications which most if not all telcos use. Then when these telcos need those services, Telkom can provide them at competitive rates. Telkom will also have to pay for those services.
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Fair call, as many times there is disconnect between the new technology deployment and the downstream teams who have to face the customer and sell/install/maintain these new technologies now bundled as products! Telkom still has excellent training facilities and facilitators and mostly they are on the ball... except when they are also kept in the dark by their technical counterparts!!!! Also remember that you cannot expect everyone to be taken away from their jobs to be trained overnight; they follow a phased approach to minimise service disruption.

What I really hope for, is that he embarks on a network rehabilitation programme to get especially the copper network back up to scratch.

As BTTB said in an earlier post, the copper network and the existing customers are Telkom's two biggest advantages they have over other telco's. Neglect them at their peril....
 
zaknight said:
Next thing he needs to do though is to scrap the dsl access charge and open up the local loop. Maybe even lease out the local loop to competitors based on the number of connections they make to his customers.
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I don't see ADSL line rental being dropped without LLU. Telkom are claiming that the line rental is needed to address the shortfall between POTS line rental and actually maintaining fixed lines:

This shortfall — which adds up to between R2bn and R3bn a year, according to Moholi — is known as the access deficit. Telkom makes up for the losses through higher call charges and broadband line rental fees, among other things.
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moggie said:
As BTTB said in an earlier post, the copper network and the existing customers are Telkom's two biggest advantages they have over other telco's. Neglect them at their peril....
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It goes without saying that they took these customers for granted.

With Telkom one can only keep repeating two words ... if only, if only ....
Such a waste of a potentially great asset, if only.

Let's hope this new fellow and his successor can pull something out of the hat.
 
BTTB said:
It goes without saying that they took these customers for granted.

With Telkom one can only keep repeating two words ... if only, if only ....
Such a waste of a potentially great asset, if only.

Let's hope this new fellow and his successor can pull something out of the hat.
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We need to hope that the newcomers there can leverage these "if only's"... folks like Brian Armstrong, Manelisa Muvuso, and then Peter Nelson, Pinky Moholi and Jeffrey Hedberg.
 
Fresh thoughts are always welcome.....................

moggie said:
We need to hope that the newcomers there can leverage these "if only's"... folks like Brian Armstrong, Manelisa Muvuso, and then Peter Nelson, Pinky Moholi and Jeffrey Hedberg.
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Fresh thoughts are always welcome.....................in the business world especially if the business i sliding downwards.

It's time for Telkom to say it's in charge of the Telecommunications infrastructure in this country and stop behaving like a NOTEL.

Time to drop fixed line calling rates drastically. Bring back the voom of having a landline.

A few years back it was R7 a call talk to any telkom number without being disturbed for as long as you wished - OFF peak.

Today that is impossible ?

The smallest customers provide you the most revenue. Mobile Telecommunications has proved just that.

Telkom Seriously needs to look at providing full value to ALL and new subscribers.

Telkom 2 Telkom landline calls at

20c per minute peak
10c per minute off peak

R 1.50 peak mobile calls - OFF Network
R 0.75c Off peak mobile calls - OFF Network

R 1.00 peak mobile calls - ON network
R 0.45c Off peak mobile calls - ON - network

SMS - OFF Network - 35c
SMS - ON Network - 10c

The Fixed Wireless Terminal can make all of the above a Reality and a money spinner.

LINE Rental for Prepaid be scrapped but minimum recharge required of R60 to be used for Voice and Data calls.

DSL line charges be reduced by 50%

More Value with their per Gigabyte Data offerings for ADSL.

Telkom is commiting Suicide while it has enough life left.
It will be too late when things start to get very hot in 2012 in the Telecoms Space.
Telkom will crumble and die.
IT is SAD when a Giant like Telkom has to FALL.


DXL - Team
 
This may be proof that the board of Telkom has finally turned its back on the fixed line business, and wants to be the fourth and smallest cell phone operator. Let's hope so, because there may finally be hope for competitive broadband in South Africa now. With any luck, Jeff's first decision will be to hand the local loop over to the government, so that everyone can use it, and so that he can focus on turning Telkom around and leading it into the mobile promised land.
 
ads said:
This may be proof that the board of Telkom has finally turned its back on the fixed line business,
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Definitely not. The newcomers are all very pro-ADSL and hopefully will be given more room in which to operate by the acting CEO!
 
Isn't Jeffrey Hedberg the same old toppie that said he thought 3G was a fad and that is why he did not want to spend money on 3G when he was still the CEO of CellC...?

I can see why Telkodemonopolies would want such a revolutionary thinker at its helm :rolleyes:.
 
I do not know any of the people mentioned here to be the front runners for CEO, but all I can say is that I will keep anyone that has or had anything to do with Cell C away from my company. Cell C is utterly useless! One of these days maybe the Telkom call centre will sound like the Cell C one, I phone call to the moon will probably be clearer.
 
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