Telkom fibre overtakes ADSL
Telkom has reached an inflection point where the number of homes connected with fibre surpassed the number of homes connected with copper.
Tekom revealed this information in its trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2021.
Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said group revenue grew 3.5%, demonstrating recovery in topline revenue compared to the prior year.
Telkom added that it made significant strides in its fibre business. The number of homes passed by fibre increased by 34.3% to 612,451.
The number of homes connected with fibre increased by 32.2% to 306,837, representing a fibre connectivity rate of 50.1%.
“We have reached an inflection point, where the number of homes connected with fibre of 306,837 surpassed the number of homes connected with copper of 264,186,” Telkom said.
Despite the growth in fibre subscribers, the overall number of fixed broadband subscribers declined from 667,920 in June 2020 to 571,023 in June 2021.
“Despite the decline in the overall fixed broadband numbers, we have seen an increase in usage with fixed broadband traffic up 4.4%,” Telkom said.
Fixed broadband traffic increased from 364 petabytes in June 2020 to 380 petabytes in June 2021.
The increased traffic is partly a result of higher speeds across Telkom’s broadband subscribers. More than 60% of its broadband customer base has connections higher than 10Mbps.
Openserve’s revenue of R3.3 billion was only R48 million or 1.4% lower than the prior year, Telkom reported.
This small decline indicates a recovery in Openserve’s revenue following the four previous successive years of significant decline in revenue.
“This is attributable to growth in high capacity links for carriers, an increase in demand for fibre services and a slowdown in fixed voice churn, which has a much smaller proportionate impact than prior years,” said Telkom.
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