Telkom South Africa has commercially launched its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service in selected areas of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Western Cape, domestic news source BusinessTech writes. Potential subscribers can sign up for 20Mbps broadband access with a 50GB data allowance for ZAR999 (USD90.56) per month, while the premium 100Mbps connection, which comes with 200GB of data, cost ZAR1,799. All of the advertised packages include a free Wi-Fi router, 3GB of mailbox storage and an unlimited ‘Night Surfer’ data allowance. The fibre-optic service is currently available in Groenkloof, Houghton, Eldoraigne, Parktown and Westcliff (Gauteng); Chelmsfordville, Dawncrest, and Winston Park (KZN); and Clairmont, Bishops Court and Plattekloof (Western Cape).
Telkom COO’s Brian Armstrong commented: ‘We are excited to deliver the next evolution of super-fast broadband connectivity to our customers. Fibre has the potential to transmit information at virtually unlimited speed and capacity allowing for a continuous improvement of our broadband offers.’
As previously noted by CommsUpdate, Telkom South Africa disclosed in November 2014 that it would have a FTTH presence in 23 suburbs in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KZN by 1 December. Previously, Telkom said that there were a total of 26 suburbs across the country where it would be offering residential fibre services, although it subsequently scrapped its plans to press ahead with FTTH rollouts in Parkview and Parkhurst, after the two suburbs awarded fibre-optic deployment contracts to Dark Fibre Africa (Parkview) and Vumatel (Parkhurst).