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03 September 2012

Telkom Foundation delivers connectivity to schools

Telkom and the Telkom Foundation today launched its Connecting Schools Project when the Company delivered over 120 tablet computers with free internet connectivity to the Mateza and Tyholorha Primary schools in George, in the Western Cape.

Each teacher was provided with a Motorola Zoom WiFi+3G, 32GB tablet computer. Telkom also deployed four ADSL/3G routers in each school to provide 24 months of free Internet connectivity, a first for these schools.

Telkom explored innovative ways of connecting these schools using technology other than fixed line services as they are in areas that currently have no terrestrial infrastructure.

Telkom Group CEO, Ms Nombulelo Moholi and Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Enver Surty was present to hand over the tablets to teachers at the school.

Addressing students and faculty, Ms Moholi explained that Telkom is continuously exploring new areas of growth to meet the expectations of South Africans.

"Today, our integrated mobile business strengthens our ability to compete and increasingly allows us to provide converged offerings to our customers," she said.

Ms Moholi pointed to Telkom's mission to provide seamless connectivity that will help South Africans realise their dreams of more productive, rewarding and fulfilling lives.

"To this end, mobile connectivity can deliver on the vast potential of broadband not only in cities and towns but across the open spaces of rural South Africa. Today, the interplay of mobile connectivity and technology in the form of tablet devices unlocks a new dimension in teaching and learning at Mateza and Tyhlorha primary schools."

Both schools also received 20 additional tablet computers each for the media rooms at each school so that learners too could familiarise themselves with the technology.

All the tablet computers 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 will also provide teachers with the necessary training to fully utilise the devices. This training will be conducted by Telkom's training wing, the Centre for Learning.

Plans are currently underway to execute Telkom's Connecting Schools Project to another three schools in George as well as six schools in Witbank in Mpumalanga.

"Our aspiration is to advance the cause of quality education, to incorporate digital tools into the teaching process, to produce knowledge workers that will allow South Africa to play in the premier league," concluded Ms Moholi.

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 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.