You are here: > About Us > Media Centre > Archive

12 February 2013

Telkom connects Mpumalanga schools

The Telkom Foundation and six schools in Mpumalanga are today celebrating the handing over of 303 tablets to teachers as part of its Connecting Schools Project.

The recipient schools are the Edward Matyeka Primary School; Nelson Ngubeni Primary School; Nancy Shiba Primary School; Besilindile Primary School; Leornard Ntshutshe Secondary School and DM Motsaosele Secondary School.

The project provides internet connectivity and tablet maintenance for 2 years. As part of the sponsorship, Telkom is also providing teacher training to enable the educators to navigate the device and access content with ease.

The selected schools faced terrestrial connectivity challenges due to the lack of infrastructure. Recognising the disadvantage this brought to these institutions, Telkom explored innovative ways of connecting the schools using technology other than fixed line services.

Telkom Foundation head Sarah Mthintso says the Company has taken up this initiative to improve teaching through the use of ICTs. "The digital revolution has brought enormous benefits for education. These include improved access to information, greater interactivity and enhanced tools for teaching. Connecting schools to this revolution is an effective way to give back to our communities and help propel them into the digital age."

She added that accessing the modern ways of disseminating and receiving education has led to notable increases in learner performance. "Learners themselves will access ICT tools which will help them when they go to tertiary institutions and make them competent in the work environment."

Telkom in this way aims to assist government in ensuring the advantages that come with ICTs are afforded to citizens. The project aids Telkom's mission to provide seamless connectivity that will help South Africans realise their dreams of more productive, rewarding and fulfilling lives.

In September, Telkom delivered over 130 tablets with free internet connectivity to schools in the Western Cape.

All the tablets are preloaded with official Department of Education workbooks including content relating to languages, life skills, mathematics, literacy and numeracy for various grades in various languages.

"Telkom is committed to supporting government and assisting it in meeting its developmental objectives, especially in relation to ICTs. It is against this background that Telkom initiated the project aimed at bridging the digital divide in rural schools," said Mthintso.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Pynee Chetty

Senior Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel:+27 12 642 1716

Mobile: +27 81 389 7874

Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za

OR

Leigh-Ann Francis

Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel: +27 12 642 1728

Mobile: +27 81 391 4780

Email: francilm@telkom.co.za

Telkom Park, The Apex

92 Oak Avenue

Technopark

Highveld

Centurion

ABOUT TELKOM:

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue of R16.8 billion and normalised profit after tax of R1, 683 million for the period ended 30 September 2015. Total assets amounted to R41.9 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R23.5 billion as of 30 September 2015. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.4 billion for the period ended 30 September 2015.

As of 30 September 2015, we had approximately 3.3 million telephone access lines in service and 1,030,441 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

  • fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;
  • fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
  • interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
  • fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
  • Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
  • W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
  • mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile navbar-brand called Telkom Mobile;
  •  information and communication services including cloud services, infrastructure services, workspace services, global service integration management and hardware and network equipment sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and
  • other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

Convergence is one of our key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom.  We will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of our mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.