Telkom Ramps Up Support Solutions for SMB Sector

South African operator Telkom has made the delivery of accessible and value-adding functionality for information and communications technology (ICT) systems specifically tailored to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a priority for 2015. The operator considers the SMB sector to be a leading contributor to the country’s economic growth. Telkom plans to provide converged offerings of fixed, mobile, data, cloud and IT solutions to its business customers. According to Thami Magazi, managing executive of Telkom’s SMB service division, the products that are being developed will go a long way in enhancing efforts aimed at bringing the second economy into the first. In other words, helping these businesses grow will result in less of a disparity between South Africa’s wealthiest and poorest people.

As we have written previously, the telecom industry plays a major role in the economic growth of developing countries. In this environment, Telkom will most likely create new revenue sources with the creation of services for SMBs. As the country’s incumbent fixed line provider, but smallest mobile operator, Telkom is wise to expand its offerings for SMBs. From recent reports, it appears that all of South Africa’s operators have begun to follow a dual strategy of fixed and mobile. Its second-largest national operator, Neotel, has been gaining market share in the fixed line sector, and Vodacom, the country’s largest mobile operator, is awaiting final approval for its planned acquisition of it. The government has created Broadband InfraCo, a national infrastructure company, to provide inexpensive backbone network capacity to service providers. Additionally, Vodacom and MTN have moved into the fixed line and national fiber sector under a converged, service-neutral licensing arrangement, and lastly all of the major players have access to the various international submarine fiber optic cables that are now available in the county. While fixed line is still a small sector in South Africa, these recent events make it a competitive one and Telkom is smart to focus on new services for its business customers, not only to produce new revenue but also as a way to remain as the country’s fixed line leader.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues or to speak with the research team: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx