Telkom recently sold its 50% stake in Vodacom, making the company more reliant on its fixed line operations for revenue and profit. There is however a trend, which Telkom is most likely acutely aware of: the continual decline in fixed line numbers.<\/p>\n
In 2005 Telkom had 4,726,000 fixed line subscribers, up from 4,680,000 the previous year. This was the last growth spurt reported, and since then there has been a steady decline which has witnessed a loss of 275,000 subscribers over the last four years.<\/p>\n
Telkom currently has 4,451,000 fixed access line subscribers, down from last year’s 4,533,000 and 2007’s 4,642,000. The biggest decline came from standard postpaid PSTN clients – a decline from 2,893,000 in 2008 to the current 2,769,000.<\/p>\n
The current South African fixed line penetration rate of 9.1% is significantly lower than the 10.1% in 2005 and even the 9.5% penetration rate in 2008. This decreasing fixed line penetration rate should be of concern to Telkom who will increasingly rely heavily on these subscribers for its future revenue after selling its stake in Vodacom.<\/p>\n
An interesting statistic is that the number of postpaid ISDN channels – an outdated technology which many international operators have started to phase out – increased over the past year from 754,000 to 781,000. This may be an indication of the lack of affordable, reliable alternatives to ISDN in the local market.<\/p>\n