Telkom turns 30

Jan

Jan

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30 years of Telkom

Telkom is celebrating its thirtieth birthday. The company was founded on 1 October 1991 when the Department of Posts and Telecommunications (DPT) was broken into Telkom and the SA Post Office.

When Telkom was unbundled from the DPT 30 years ago, it had 67,667 employees under the leadership of managing director Danie du Toit.
 
They do have an impressive history - lots of smart people walking through the doors over the 30 years - many of them would have also been part of the other big 2 mobile operators successes.

However:
1st blunder - sale of Vodacom
2nd blunder - snail pace fibre rollout
 
Jan said:
30 years of Telkom

Telkom is celebrating its thirtieth birthday. The company was founded on 1 October 1991 when the Department of Posts and Telecommunications (DPT) was broken into Telkom and the SA Post Office.

When Telkom was unbundled from the DPT 30 years ago, it had 67,667 employees under the leadership of managing director Danie du Toit.
Click to expand...

Wow, I need another cup of coffee. I completely misread the highlighted part. Been wondering how a telecommunications company got formed from a burglary...
 
I can't find a clip of it, but who remembers the jingle?
"Pos en telekommunikasie,
ons maak dit moontlik"

Edit: Just realised the reason I recall this is that even as a laaitie of 10 years old, I was cynical enough to wonder "Wat presies maak julle moontlik? Ons moet nogsteeds 0 druk en vra vir 'n lyn maar ons bly net 2km buite die dorp. En as die weer dreun gaan die foon dood."
Quoteth my father: "F***n poskantoor."
 
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Interesting read..
My parents were a subscriber to Telkom, with a fixed telephone line, for years.
I still remember the number to this day. We ported over to VOIP a few years ago, but then, we did not really need a telephone anymore, because we all had cellphones then.
I remember my sister when she was young, that she is going to call mom, because of something stupid... She actually threatened us, that if we are "stout" or made her mad, then she's going to call mom... We just pulled the cable out... Classic times.
 
I miss the public phones which u can dial a number and listen to the receiver of call, use to call mom and she calls our names and u put down when you hear yours so she knows to pick u up haha.

Those were the days pre cell phones.
 
Who remembers calling girlfriends from the landline even after your parents locked the phone?
I think we tapped the receiver button a number of times depending on the number we were calling.
Don’t even remember how we did it lol!
 
The_MAC said:
They do have an impressive history - lots of smart people walking through the doors over the 30 years - many of them would have also been part of the other big 2 mobile operators successes.

However:
1st blunder - sale of Vodacom
2nd blunder - snail pace fibre rollout
Click to expand...
Taking 15 years to roll out naked ADSL.
 
Ghost64 said:
Who remembers calling girlfriends from the landline even after your parents locked the phone?
I think we tapped the receiver button a number of times depending on the number we were calling.
Don’t even remember how we did it lol!
Click to expand...
Will even work today. Tap 10 times for the zero, if a switchboard tap 11 times for the same. Lol
 
Jan said:
The company was founded on 1 October 1991 when the Department of Posts and Telecommunications (DPT) was broken into Telkom and the SA Post Office.
Click to expand...

That's where the **** started.
 
In the late 70's some "Telkom" techies gave me the old cables they were cyclically replacing in my neighbourhood.

Now we were on one of the biggest islands in the suburbs, no roads dissecting it, so I was able to join pieces together and make a private line to my friend via 21 other properties! We kept it going for years!

Those were the days :-D
 
Ghost64 said:
Who remembers calling girlfriends from the landline even after your parents locked the phone?
I think we tapped the receiver button a number of times depending on the number we were calling.
Don’t even remember how we did it lol!
Click to expand...
I used to have my own 10m telephone cord, so that I could have the chat in private in my room - my brothers kept stealing it, so I had to always replace it with the normal 1m one after each call :)

Don't forget having 2 phones in the house and listening in on someone else's conversation..
 
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The_MAC said:
They do have an impressive history - lots of smart people walking through the doors over the 30 years - many of them would have also been part of the other big 2 mobile operators successes.

However:
1st blunder - sale of Vodacom
2nd blunder - snail pace fibre rollout
Click to expand...

backstreetboy said:
Taking 15 years to roll out naked ADSL.
Click to expand...

3GB Capped ADSL...
"good times"
 
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