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Telkom journeys towards real convergence

Telkom today achieved another important milestone on its journey towards true fixed mobile convergence with the launch of Telkom Business Mobile. This comes as the Company's growing mobile division advances Telkom's progression towards innovative converged offerings.

Managing Director of Telkom Business, Dr Brian Armstrong told guests, "South African businesses striving towards increased productivity and efficiency seek the convenience of both fixed-line and mobile communications."

He explained that, "Employees can spend up to 40% of their time away from their desks, complicating communication needs and draining productivity."" But at the same time research has shown that more than 80% of mobile calls are made from a fixed location. This underlines the opportunity for FMC.

While current mobile offerings include bundled voice and data offerings none include the fixed line component to create a true fixed line convergence offering.

Telkom's vast fixed line infrastructure will enable it to be the first operator to bundle mobile communications to its existing fixed line offerings for the enterprise and small business market.

"Telkom Business Mobile will combine the best aspects of both its fixed and mobile communication services into a single product range, paving the way towards seamless connectivity between fixed and wireless networks," stated Armstrong.

Today's launch marks the first step in a journey which will unfold over three phases.

The first phase, Telkom Business Mobile, includes mobile voice, data, messaging and value added services. The value added services include Customer SelfCare Portal, Corporate Usage Control, Split Billing, and Billing Hierarchy models.

Armstrong noted that Telkom Business' experience in developing customer specific solutions as well as its extensive Customer Life Cycle Management services are key differentiators of the Telkom Business Mobile offering.

The second phase of Telkom's journey toward fixed mobile convergence will progress towards commercially bundling fixed and mobile voice and data services. The third phase is designed to offer an integrated converged mobile and fixed product range including unified communication features.

Dr Armstrong emphasised Telkom's unique positioning on this journey towards full convergence. "Telkom is one of very few players ready to take advantage of convergence opportunities, meaning fixed-mobile convergence and IT-telecoms convergence."

"We now have all the critical ingredients for true convergence: a strong fixed-line business that no one else can match, a growing mobile business and a leading data centre business."

Additional Information:

Mobile Voice: These include:

• Business Voice Postpaid plans comprising of inclusive minutes to Telkom's fixed and mobile networks and in most cases data and messaging is bundled with a mobile handset and value added services such as mobile number portability; itemised billing, caller line identification and international mobile roaming. These plans are based on 24 month contracts on both per minute as well as per second billing options.
>Business Voice Top Up Plans that consist of saver packages, designed so that businesses can control their monthly expenditure, by preventing out-of-bundle calls once the inclusive airtime is exhausted.
• Business Shared Voice Plans that enables the business user to share purchased airtime from the primary account holder to other Telkom Business Mobile subscribers.
• Business Voice Closed User Groups is the ultimate method of controlling Mobile Voice call costs, if most of the mobile calls your employees make are to other employees within the same company. For a fixed monthly fee, Telkom Business Mobile subscribers can make unlimited free calls to other members of the same CUG.

Mobile Messaging include SMS and MMS bundles of various sizes that can be purchased once-off or recurring monthly basis. Once-off bundles are valid until the end of the next month. With recurring monthly bundles, unused messages are forfeited at month end.

Mobile Data: are Postpaid Internet access data options, provided with a 3G modem or Wi-Fi router. These include:

• Business Internet plans are Postpaid Internet access data options, provided with a 3G modem or WiFi router. There are seven Business internet Plans to choose from, based on data bundle size.
• Business Internet Top Up Plans consist of a choice of five Internet Saver Plans, designed to control internet data spend
• Business Internet Bolt-on Packages which are once-off internet bundles that can be purchased and used on any business Internet Plan or Business internet Top Up Plan. When the allocated in-bundle data is exhausted, before month end, a once-off Internet Bolt-on plan can be purchased.
• Business Shared Internet Plans are data bundles that enable your business to share Internet data by distributing smaller bundles to multiple SIMs or linked sub-accounts via the SelfCare portal.
>Business Data APN is a corporate APN solution providing remote access to a corporate's private LAN network, securely, through the Telkom Business Mobile network.
• Business Data APN Bolt-on enables customers to purchase once-off data bundles and load onto depleted Business Data APN package. Only one Business Data APN Bolt-on bundle can be purchased within a single calendar month.
• Telkom Business Mobile BlackBerry: the tools and functionalities of the BlackBerry service are a pivotal contributor to the success of many enterprises. BlackBerry supports a large number of on-device applications that allow advanced business tools to be used anywhere, anytime where there is mobile coverage.

Value Added Services:

• SelfCare Portal is a Telkom Business Mobile Portal which allows network administrators to configure and administer the company's mobile services. A secure login access portal enables the execution of various general account activities and product specific actions.
• Corporate Usage Control enables SMEs, government departments, large corporate and global companies to manage operational costs associated with the use of mobile devices.
• Split Billing provides an employer with the ability to set a rand value allowance and service restrictions on an employee's mobile account. The employee is thereafter responsible for any additional charges occurred on his account. Telkom Business Mobile will therefore run two debit orders on a single account, one for the employer and one for the employee.
• Billing Hierarchy allows companies to match the accounts received, to the unique organisational design. This allows for telecoms expenses to be allocated to divisional cost centres easily and efficiently.