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Telkom Mobile well on its way

Roaming agreement with MTN concluded

Telkom SA and MTN SA are pleased to announce that they have successfully concluded a national roaming agreement, which will see Telkom entering the mobile voice and data market in South Africa.

Since divesting from Vodacom, Telkom has been clear about its strategic intent to compete in the mobile market by building its own network in key areas and through strategic partnerships in other areas. The national roaming agreement, announced today, represents one such strategic partnership, and is in keeping with the changes in the telecommunications landscape - including the move towards infrastructure sharing between operators.

Telkom Group CEO Reuben September said: "I am delighted to make known the conclusion of a roaming agreement with MTN that will enhance Telkom's ability to effectively compete in the mobile marketplace. I regard this agreement as a breakthrough indicator of Telkom's ability to successfully implement its strategy. Telkom is mindful that it needs to clearly illustrate delivery on its objectives; and ensure that its efforts to enhance shareholder value are brought to fruition."

Pinky Moholi, Managing Director of the Telkom SA Business Unit added : "The agreement paves the way for Telkom to launch its mobile service later this year by offering its customers seamless access to a stable MTN SA network with a substantial national footprint, whilst continuing to roll out its own mobile base stations."

The roaming agreement fosters a strategic partnership between these two truly South African players in the telecommunications industry, and enhances their already significant local investment in the country.

Making the announcement, Karel Pienaar, the Managing Director of MTN South Africa, said: "This agreement with Telkom demonstrates our continued commitment to provide connectivity for all South Africans. By joining forces, we are able to leverage our already significant investment in our network infrastructure. It puts us at the forefront of continued provision of world-class communications and connectivity."

"Continued growth and access to quality services are non-negotiables in our business strategy. Since our inception 15 years ago, we have made huge strides in expanding our national reach through extensive and sustained local investment in infrastructure to ensure a quality network. We are excited by the synergies and depth of penetration that will be unlocked through the combination of the two companies' extensive reach," stated Pienaar.

CEO of the MTN Group, Phuthuma Nhleko, added that infrastructure sharing made absolute sense. "It not only reduces duplication and infrastructure roll-out and maintenance costs, but also leads to effective utilisation of available network capacity," concluded Nhleko.

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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.