{"id":82259,"date":"2013-07-27T22:39:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T20:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=82259"},"modified":"2013-07-29T10:41:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T08:41:32","slug":"telkom-copper-network-spin-off-whos-interested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/82259-telkom-copper-network-spin-off-whos-interested.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom copper network spin-off: who\u2019s interested?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Telkom<\/a> were to spin its copper network off into a separate entity and try to raise funding partly from the private sector, at least two industry players have no interest in buying into it.<\/p>\n

Vox Telecom<\/a> executive head of strategy and innovation, Douglas Reed<\/a>, and the chief technology officer of Internet Solutions<\/a>, Prenesh Padayachee<\/a>, both said that they wouldn\u2019t be interested in a stake in Telkom\u2019s copper network.<\/p>\n

This follows information MyBroadband recently received indicating that Telkom is looking at selling off its copper network to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), and then lease it back from the SPV. Telkom\u2019s plan also includes the option to buy its copper back at the end of the lease period.<\/p>\n

Telkom could be making an announcement about this as soon as a month from now (August 2013), a source has revealed.<\/p>\n

\"Douglas

Douglas Reed<\/p><\/div>\n

Vox and IS not interested<\/h3>\n

Asked why they aren\u2019t interested, Reed said this would be a long term infrastructure investment more suited to government investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think it is makes sense for the government to split out the wholesale division from Telkom (copper and fibre), nationalise it and merge it with [Broadband] Infraco<\/a> and Sentech<\/a>,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

Padayachee felt that Telkom\u2019s copper infrastructure was too old and said he would guess that the maintenance costs are fairly high.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, with technology changing at such a rapid pace, the need for copper wired infrastructure is rapidly declining,\u201d Padayachee said. \u201cTherefore, the return on the capital would be fairly risky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Prenesh

Prenesh Padayachee<\/p><\/div>\n

Vodacom, MTN, Mweb, and Cell C respond<\/h3>\n

Vodacom<\/a>, MTN<\/a>, and Mweb<\/a> declined to comment, with Mweb\u2019s Derek Hershaw<\/a> saying that it\u2019s pure speculation at this stage and that they haven\u2019t given it any thought.<\/p>\n

MTN also indicated that it did not wish to comment on the hypothetical scenario that Telkom would be open to funding from the telecoms industry for its SPV. \u201cWe do not comment on market rumours or speculation, so we cannot provide any comment,\u201d MTN said. \u201cWe shall however continue our self provisioning efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cell C said, \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting proposal and we will keep an eye on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neotel mum<\/h3>\n

Neotel<\/a> did not comment by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

More on Telkom\u2019s copper-based services and LLU<\/h3>\n

Telkom\u2019s big, surprising copper network plans: sources<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Telkom ADSL IPC price cuts coming: sources<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Telkom\u2019s new prices: full details<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cheaper price project: ICASA deadline rundown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Telkom\u2019s ADSL Bitstream snub<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telkom is planning to spin its copper network off into a separate entity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":76025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1147,355,559,1425,35,391,42,213,107,1976,2760,20291,109,41,49],"class_list":["post-82259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecoms","tag-broadband-infraco","tag-cell-c","tag-derek-hershaw","tag-douglas-reed","tag-headline","tag-internet-solutions","tag-mtn","tag-mweb","tag-neotel","tag-prenesh-padayachee","tag-sentech","tag-special-purpose-vehicle-spv","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom","tag-vox-telecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82279,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82259\/revisions\/82279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}