South African operator Telkom's CEO Sipho Maseko has held talks with media companies such as Comcast, Bertelsmann, Naspers and Netflix about providing content for its network in South Africa, CEO Sipho Maseko said in an interview with Bloomberg. He was discussing the challenges to boost revenue and lower costs at the incumbent operator. Maseko plans to fire as many as 1,000 managers and says he needs to cut the approximately 21,000-strong workforce by almost a third over five years. The decision follows a contract with Boston-based Bain agreed about a week after he started at Telkom in April on plans to restructure the group. Masekso also said the company's mobile business had proved a "drain" and needs to reduce costs by at least 50 percent. Telkom is in talks with other operators about sharing infrastructure in order to lower costs.
