Best news in 9 years for Telkom’s Openserve

Telkom’s wholly owned fibre infrastructure operator, Openserve, recorded its first full-year revenue growth since 2017.

Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong called the achievement a “remarkable milestone,” and said that it was “an indication that the transition to fibre services is largely complete.”

In its annual results published on Tuesday, Telkom reported that Openserve’s overall revenue for the full year was R12.63 billion, up 2.3% from R12.34 billion in the prior year.

The partly state-owned telecom giant launched Openserve on 13 October 2015 as the functional separation of its wholesale and retail operations.

At the time, the company said the split heralded a new era for the group as it prepared to embrace a more open-access environment.

Since then, the fibre operator has built a massive infrastructure network across South Africa, which companies like Afrihost and Axxess use to sell fibre products.

Openserve also served as the landing station partner for Google’s Equiano submarine cable system, running from Western Europe along the West Coast of Africa to Openserve facilities in the Western Cape.

In its initial segment reporting in the 2017 financial year, Telkom said that Openserve recorded revenue of R18.09 billion. A figure that would continue to decline over the next eight full-year reporting periods.

The overall loss in revenue was approximately R5.7 billion across the eight years from the initial R18.09 billion, or 31.75%, until the 2026 financial year, when it finally turned a corner.

Openserve also managed fibre-related data revenue growth of 8.2% in the year ended 31 March 2026, and had a fibre-to-the-home connectivity rate of 53.1%, which Telkom said was industry-leading.

The group reported that Openserve’s EBITDA margin improved to 33.5% from 32.4% in the prior year. Telkom attributed the growth to its cost discipline and the decommissioning of legacy infrastructure.

Telkom celebrates Openserve milestone

“The milestone results from Consumer and Openserve demonstrate that we have already been working hard on achieving our dual goals of increasing efficiencies and improving growth,” it said in the results.

“Most of our business units are already delivering quality outcomes in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Total group revenue for the 2026 financial year grew to R44.48 billion, a 1.4% increase compared to R43.88 billion reported in the prior year.

Telkom’s overall profit for the year recorded substantial growth, rising 27.5% to R3.5 billion, up from R2.7 billion in 2025.

Excluding the impacts of its settlement of the Telkom Retirement Fund (TRF) and restructuring costs with a related tax impact, profit in the previous financial year would have been R3.35 billion.

However, even accounting for those once-off costs, Telkom’s profit in 2025/26 would have been 5.9% higher than in 2024/25.

Headline earnings grew 30.1% in the year ended 31 March 2026 to 708.5 cents per share, compared to 544.5 cents per share in 2025.

This was in line with a notification from Telkom to shareholders last week, which announced that it expected to report a headline earnings per share increase of between 23% and 33%.

It said that the increase was on top of once-off gains from the disposal of its tower business, Swiftnet, in the prior year.

Telkom said its overall headline earnings would still increase to 677.9 to 724.6 cents per share, which was also delivered in its latest full-year results.

“Earnings growth was primarily driven by a strong underlying operating performance, continued focus on structural cost optimisation and lower finance charges resulting from reduced debt levels,” Telkom said.

Telkom’s Openserve performance and group results FY2026

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