Telkom South Africa said it has reached an agreement with the Competition Commission (CompCom) for introduction of a new, aggregated wholesale system to remove concerns over its current IP Connect product. The new product suite to be offered by Telkom wholesale division Openserve will introduce transparency and remove any perceived competition problems associated with provision of wholesale broadband connectivity.
Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko said Openserve has been considering changing the way it provides wholesale broadband over its copper and fibre infrastructure for some time. The new Openserve service is structured as an aggregated end-to-end product. It will allow ISPs to manage their costs and compare Openserve's fixed broadband prices with the prices of other wholesale broadband providers more easily.
On the mobile front, Telkom said it is committed to providing cost-effective mobile services. The operator says there was no need for CompCom to recommend that Telkom lower its prices when it concluded its Data Services Market Inquiry. Telkom has agreed to improve transparency of pricing in line with the Inquiry recommendations. Telkom will notify its customers of the in-bundle effective rate per megabyte (ERMB) in its purchase confirmation messages to subscribers. Telkom will notify subscribers of this rate via SMS when data bundles are purchased.
Telkom says it is committed to assisting in narrowing the digital divide by offering zero-rated access to essential government services and educational institutions, including the primary URLs of more than 60 universities and FET institutions. It is also offering free access to other information sites such as Wikipedia, Everything Science, Everything Maths and DBE Cloud.
