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07 August 2015

SATNAC 2015: "Africa – The Future Communications Galaxy"

SATNAC, the annual Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference, will again be hosted by Telkom in partnership with sponsors from the industry. This year’s event will be held 6-9 September at Arabella Hotel & Spa, in the heart of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, near Hermanus in South Africa’s Western Cape region.

A wide range of technical topics to be discussed at Africa’s leading ICT conference, will be centred on this year’s theme “Africa – The Future Communications Galaxy.”

The conference, initially focussing exclusively on student presentations of telecommunications-related research, debuted at the University of Cape Town in 1997, drawing less than 100 delegates then.

Now, in its 18th year, SATNAC is heralded as one of the premier ICT discussion platforms on the continent. Attendance alone has jumped almost five-fold since SATNAC’s modest beginnings and industry role-players from around the world now make up the delegation at the conference.

SATNAC Conference Chairperson, Mr Alphonzo Samuels, says: “SATNAC allows industry leaders, academia and operators to showcase their applied research in the ICT sector and also affords a platform for postgraduate students to highlight their research successes. With so many industry leaders attending SATNAC, the conference provides an excellent networking platform for the ICT industry.

“This year’s Conference theme, “Africa – The Future Communications Galaxy”, will see industry leaders discuss key issues and challenges and report on the progress of industry-related research, much of which is linked to the exploration of the continent’s potential – in relation to its markets or its citizens - from an information, communication and technology perspective,” says Samuels.

Closely linked to SATNAC is Telkom’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) programme, which was established 19 years ago with a specific focus on building advanced research capabilities at institutions of higher education. The programme has shown tremendous growth since its inception and, to date, boasts 16 Centres of Excellence across the country at leading universities.

The SATNAC Conference is Telkom-hosted. Diamond sponsors include Huawei, ZTE, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent andASAJE. The following companies are also sponsors of the conference: ADVA / Jasco, CBI, Dartcom, TFMC, Saab Grintek Technologies, XON Systems, DFA, Bytes, Aria Technologies, Accenture, Ericsson, MCorp/FibreCo and Coriant.

Registration for this year’s conference is currently open. To participate in the informative deliberations around “Africa – The Future Communications Galaxy”, please register for the conference at www.satnac.org.za. The SATNAC Organising Committee urges all interested delegates to register as soon as possible as accommodation is limited.

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

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ABOUT TELKOM:

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue from continuing operations of R31.7 billion and profit after tax from continuing operations of R2,889 million for the year ended 31 March 2015. Total assets amounted to R42.0 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R25.7 billion as of 31 March 2015. The group generated free cash flow of R3.9 billion for the year ended 31 March 2015.

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  • 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;
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  • 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.

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