Telkom’s High Bandwidth Plans
While consumers welcomed the telco’s move to provide improved services by souping up their infrastructure, investors were not thrilled by the news causing Telkom’s share price to plummet.
Pierre Marais, Telkom’s Executive for Network Infrastructure Provisioning, said hat Telkom is excited about the challenges of an IP based telecoms environment.
Speaking at the Futurex CSSA Conference, Marais said that the benefits of using a NGN are too numerous to ignore any longer.
Marais said that consumers will be the greatest beneficiaries in a NGN, with more control and flexibility, better lifestyle enhancing products, cost reductions and a rapid deployment of services.
Marais said that Telkom has experienced a significant increase in bandwidth demand over the past few years, but that the fixed line provider had measures in place to ensure that they will be able to satisfy these demands.
One of Telkom’s main focal areas is high speed broadband provisioning, and technologies like WiMax, ADSL, ADSL2+ and Metro-Ethernet which are all either in the testing or trial phase.
Marais however pointed out that South Africa’s relatively long copper local loops are an inhibiting factor when it comes to high speed fixed line broadband provisioning. The basic rule is that the longer the local loop, the lower the theoretical bandwidth limit.
To overcome this problem Telkom is bringing fiber closer to the consumers’ premises. Fiber will typically run to the ‘street corner’ distribution cabinets and from there copper will provide last mile access to the consumer. The shortened copper loop lengths will make higher broadband speeds possible using ADSL, ADSL2 or ADSL2+.
Metro-Ethernet is another technology Telkom is investing in, and this high bandwidth capable technology should satisfy the needs of even the most bandwidth hungry corporate.
Telkom will also be employing various wireless technologies like WiMax and WiFi to supply services to consumers. While Marais did not want to divulge much information regarding Telkom’s future plans, these technologies will most likely be used in areas where they do not have good fixed line penetration or where it is not possible to provide services like ADSL.
Wireless technologies are also easier to deploy than fixed line networks which makes it a suitable alternative to copper cabling in many environments.
Marais said that it is Telkom’s aim to attain a full ICT capable NGN network by 2010. The incumbent has also previously indicated that they are aiming for 1 million broadband customers by this date making 2010 a big target for South Africans to watch out for.
It is encouraging to see that the Telecoms giant is investing in network infrastructure that can bring South Africa in line with the international telecoms community. This investment can also bring significant savings to consumers, but it is not certain when customers will see the results.
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