Telkom SA to expand super-fast broadband across South Africa
South Africa’s Telkom SA is to dramatically expand the availability of super-fast broadband services across the country, as part of its strategic ‘Network Transformation Initiative’.
The project includes upgrading the existing access network with new-generation VDSL2 technology serving 4.4 million subscribers, and where commercially viable will also include the introduction of gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technologies to support fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) capabilities.
The telco also expects these new access technologies to be key enablers for potential future services such as video-on-demand, IPTV, and high quality voice services.
Telkom SA has chosen network equipment from Alcatel-Lucent to enable this expansion of super-fast broadband services, including its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) product family, which supports passive optical networking (PON) and digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies on the same platform.
Any operator who isn’t seriously planning for network infrastructure that can support IPTV over the next 3-5years will not necessarily have any plans for newer and future revenue streams. Working with some operators in Nigeria really did enlighten me to the fact that there are still issues with choosing the appropriate vendor and there is no thinking towards deploying future proof network infrastructure.