Telkom's "invincible network" plans

[Necuno]

Telkom’s “invincible network” plans

Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said that they want to make Telkom’s network more robust and more invincible

Fire all the whites?

 

[elvis_presley]

Replacing a switch with a MSAN does little to nothing for their bottom line if done in isolation. The 4Mbps to 10Mbps upgrade was pretty much a non-event. I expect the same from the MSANs.

MSANs are more than in incremental upgrade, it's a whole new generation of infrastructure - not only does it shorten the local loop, it connects a cluster of customers via single fat fibre pipe, reducing contention and long-term maintenance costs. When people talk about overseas' "amazing" ADSL and services, it's the MSAN tech that makes it possible.


The 4Mbps to 10Mbps upgrade was just a configuration change over existing copper infrastructure. Nothing physical was done.

 

[Paul Hjul]

You are missing a few things...

The 1400 exchanges are being maintained in their current state, not cut out. If circumstances change then some of those exchanges can very quickly be upgraded or replaced with multi-service access nodes.

At the same time they are rolling out LTE in many of these 1400 areas (not part of the Telkom Mobile/MTN deal).

Comparing a fixed line exchange to a single 3G cellular tower is nonsensical. MAYBE you could compare it to a street distribution cabinet in terms of reach...

So where is the scaling down? By replacing the switches in the 600 exchanges with multiple MSANs (per exchange area) it is increasing their capacity not decreasing it.

For me the biggest issue is that the CEO is not addressing the impact of LLU, which is "imminent".

YEP and they cannot escape LLU, what they need to do is to see the opportunities which LLU offers Telkom and take the lead in LLU initiatives. Frankly before culling off staff they should have LLU implementations teams put together

 

[Johand]

Watch this space for another "merger" or sale...

Unless MTN is outright buying them from the government I don't see much will happen. The only thing Telkom has managed is to get rid of shareholder's money. Between Multilinks, the disastrous adventure into TV Land I certain won't trust them with my money. "Magic plans" will not help them in the long term.

MSANs are more than in incremental upgrade, it's a whole new generation of infrastructure - not only does it shorten the local loop, it connects a cluster of customers via single fat fibre pipe, reducing contention and long-term maintenance costs. When people talk about overseas' "amazing" ADSL and services, it's the MSAN tech that makes it possible.


The 4Mbps to 10Mbps upgrade was just a configuration change over existing copper infrastructure. Nothing physical was done.

Sorry -- I am not referring to the technology. It is a great upgrade from a technology perspective. I am referring to the business capability. Upgrading to 10Mbps was 4 years ago and a lot of exchanges are still only 4Mbps. Making 20 Mbps/40 Mbps available now is just them trying to keep up. The average consumer will probably have a far better experience with LTE than 4 Mbps ADSL (unless they are download junkies).

Yes - they can leverage the MSAN's for more. But I won't hold my breath. They will need to spend a lot more than they are currently spending and they will need to step up the speed of deployment.

Look -- something at Telkom needs to give. There are companies that smell like growth companies and there are companies with a long string of failures.

 

[MickeyD]

Unless MTN is outright buying them from the government I don't see much will happen. The only thing Telkom has managed is to get rid of shareholder's money. Between Multilinks, the disastrous adventure into TV Land I certain won't trust them with my money. "Magic plans" will not help them in the long term.

I'm only referring to the Telkom data centres...

 

[ch@rge]

Its quite sad to read this.

When the MSAN rollout came about a few years ago, Telkom promised to upgrade all exchanges and UMC's by 2016? (If I recall correctly).
Our work is in a rather rural area in KZN we do, however, have a UMC right outside our gate. We only received ADSL three years ago and the Max available rate is 4meg. Now reading this article, it doesn't hold much hope for any upgrades.

Our IT department pays Telkom around R8000p/m (ADSL, Diginet, etc) - This doesn't include our telephone lines or costs. Reading this article basically implies that Telkom are giving people like us the finger. Our diginet contract is up soon, I guess I'll return the favour to Telkom and find another technology/solution to service our needs. Any viable alternative to ADSL for web browsing traffic?

The sad thing is that Telkom placed the UMC outside our gate because of the Diginet Line. If we drop our business, then they won't support the UMC any more and people in our region could lose their ADSL connectivity. I foresee its the beginning of a sad cycle.

 

[AstroTurf]

If they upgrade the 600 they plan to upgrade it should allow for less congestion meaning the possibility of faster connections and more clients. It may also give them a big pile of spares if they plan right and decommission properly meaning cheaper and faster repairs for the rest but who knows.

reason for edit: Don't let me near a touch pad till I have had my first cup of coffee.