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22 August 2013

SATNAC delivers industry's best

The Southern African Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC) proudly announced today that Honorable Minister of Communications, Mr Yunus Carrim has confirmed that he will deliver the opening address at the conference.

Hosted by Telkom, the three day conference will see captains of industry deliver a number of keynote presentations around the conference theme: "Broadband – A catalyst for sustainable economic development and promoting digital inclusion."

Says conference chairman, Mr Alphonzo Samuels, "SATNAC is well known as the meeting place for industry leaders and academia to discuss emerging trends and topical issues facing the ICT industry."

"This year, again, we have attracted sponsorship of the industry's top players who see the great value that the conference brings," adds Mr Samuels.

SATNAC's diamond sponsors include: Alcatel-Lucent; ASAJE; Cisco; Coriant; Huawei and Nokia Solutions and Networks.

Alpheus Mangale, Managing Director Cisco South Africa says, "SATNAC 2013 comes at an opportune time and we are therefore delighted to be joining forces with Telkom to support the event as a Diamond sponsor. Our goal is to work with private and public sector organisations in South Africa to help further define as well as participate in the country's agenda for accelerating national broadband roll-out and supporting the government's vision to achieve this by 2020 is key to Cisco's strategy.

"It is events like SATNAC that will continue to bring to the forefront the vital role that broadband acceleration will play in helping organisations throughout South Africa to benefit from the new level of opportunity to be created by technology growth and innovation and over the next few years we will see organisations evolving to thrive in the new environment.

"Cisco is at a very exciting, pivotal place being at the forefront of Internet of Everything (IoE), an era where the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of everyone on our planet," he adds.

A keynote speaker in this year's SATNAC, Luis Martinez-Amago, is Alcatel-Lucent's President for EMEA. He will be sharing results of Alcatel-Lucent's own research and experience from work on broadband projects with other operators worldwide.

"This year's SATNAC theme is very relevant and important to the current national debate in South Africa regarding the National Broadband Initiative. We will be sharing results from our own research into quantifying the viability and social impact of a national broadband program in various countries. We are very happy to participate in SATNAC and to contribute to that important debate," says Mr Martinez-Amago.

Speaking to the theme of the conference, Mikko Lavanti, Chief Customer Officer, Coriant says, "building real broadband networks will improve quality of life in remote locations and provide the capability to offer better education and health care services. The networks will also help create new job opportunities."

"Coriant is very proud to be part of SATNAC 2013 and we look forward continuing to support SATNAC and its objectives, in collaboration with major South African operators such as Telkom, building industry leading Optical transport networks for the future of South African communications," adds Mr Lavanti.

The conference starts with a Welcome Function on Sunday evening. The traditional icebreaker golf day will begin at 09:00 on Sunday at the De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate.

BDTV, the official broadcast partner for the conference, will broadcast the plenary sessions live and will also broadcast a highlights package in the week after the conference. Summit TV is available on DSTV Channel 412.

All registrations have to be completed online (www.satnac.org.za). Information on hotel accommodation can also be found on the website.

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.