Telkom FTTH roll-out in Parkview, Parkhurst stopped

“We have stopped our fibre roll-out into Parkview and Parkhurst,” the head of Telkom’s retail and consumer division, Attila Vitai, told media at a launch event for the network operator’s LTE Advanced (LTE-A) services in Parkview today.

This doesn’t mean that Telkom isn’t rolling out any fibre to the areas, Vitai added, just that it no longer has plans to offer its own fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network there.

“We’ve rolled out fibre to our exchanges,” Vitai said, explaining that they wouldn’t be able to offer LTE-A services without fibre backhaul to its wireless network sites.

Telkom’s revelation comes after the two affluent suburbs announced that they had entered into deals with other fibre network players to build networks in the area.

Vumatel recently announced that the first homes in Parkhurst had been connected to its network, while Parkview announced that Dark Fibre Africa would be building its fibre network.

Brian Armstrong, group chief operating officer at Telkom, said that they see LTE and FTTH as complementary products.

“Parkview and Parkhurst were on our network roll-out map two years ago, but there were market developments and we had to respond to them,” Armstrong said to explain why they stopped their FTTH deployments in the suburbs.

Telkom Internet accounts on Vumatel, DFA

Asked whether Telkom would offer Internet packages on top of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa’s networks in Parkhurst and Parkview, Vitai said that they are open to the idea.

He added that the company was already in discussions to offer its retail services on these third-party networks.

Queried about why they decided to roll out LTE-A in Parkview and Parkhurst first, Armstrong said it was because they believe in competing vigorously.

“And if this is where the competition is, this is where we will be,” Armstrong said.

More LTE Advanced and FTTH news

100Mbps broadband prices: Telkom LTE A vs FTTH

Telkom’s first 100Mbps FTTH suburbs

Telkom 100Mbps FTTH to launch next year

Parkhurst Vumatel 1Gbps fibre goes live

Parkview FTTH project chooses Dark Fibre Africa