10 Things you should know about Telkom

Telkom is a brand founded by Ian Russell. Here are 10 Things you should know about Telkom.

1. The first use of telecommunication in South Africa happened in April 1860 was a single line telegraph connecting Cape Town and Simonstown.
2. In 1879, the first undersea links were introduced, first connecting Durban and Europe.
3. In the 1960s, South Africa was connected to 72 nations and total outgoing annual international calls numbered over 28,800.
4. In 1994, South Africa launched its mobile operations, underwritten by Telkom in partnership with Vodafone.
5. This subsidiary grew to be Vodacom, which Telkom sold in late 2008 in preference for its own 3G network.
6. Nowadays, Telkom faces competition from the second Fixed Network Operator Licensee, Neotel, as well as the three mobile operators, Vodacom, MTN, and Cell-C.
7. Telkom SA is structured under Group CEO, Brian Armstrong.
8. The retail division, including Telkom Business, Telkom Mobile, Consumer Marketing, Cloud, and IT Operations are run by Group Chief Operating Officer, Brite Devassy.
9. Cybernest focuses on Telkom’s newly deployed DCO infrastructure in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg, as well as services thereupon, including data hosting, LAN and application management, and managing IT infrastructure for corporate and large business customers.
10. Telkom acquired Business Connexion in August 2015 for approximately ZAR 2.6 billion with the strategic intent of obtaining a significant presence in the Information Technology (IT) market in South Africa.