Telkom Dominates the Industry with Consistent Success

Telkom has come a long way since launching its Mobile operations 10 years ago, and it seems the company is on an upward trajectory, recently ranked number 2 in the MyBroadband’s recently published mobile operator customer satisfaction ratings conducted between 1 January 2021 and June 2021. The key findings in the survey report a 71% positive sentiment in customer satisfaction amongst competitors.

The telecommunications company also placed third over the last year in MyBroadband Insights Mobile Report based on mobile network speed tests, acknowledging improvements in Telkom’s network performance in comparison to its competitors. The biggest contributing factors to the success include the additional spectrum allocated to Telkom, capacity enhancements in high demand areas through the spectrum and MIMO technology; as well as quickened reaction times to network issues and traffic management – all aimed at improving the user experience and provide stability plus quality to consumers, according to the publication.

Telkom also rose to the number 3 spot (with 15 million subscribers) as one of the fastest-growing mobile network providers in the middle of the national lockdown last year owing to increased demand in data usage by consumers as they became more home-centric in work and learning. The improvements were achieved despite consumers using significantly more data than ever before as a result of ongoing lockdowns, further cementing the fact that the company’s decision to invest in its network ahead of time was a good one.

“We have worked to continuously improve our network and we are thrilled to receive this affirmation by a well-respected forum in the country. The recognition is testament to all the strides we’ve made in the last couple of years. There are four key areas that speak to our success as a business and how far we’ve come: an amazing can-do culture within Telkom, leading with consumer innovation and giving consumers what the need, intelligent network deployment and increasingly effective resource management.

Telkom continues to lead in award-winning data products unpinned by consumer insights. In 2016, we launched the first data-led product by a local network provider – FreeMe and unlimited LTE products. We are also the largest provider of fixed wireless broadband, among other achievements. We achieved this growth despite the limitations in certain spectrum bands. The anticipated increase in demand for data traffic required a different approach to network deployment, with focused analysis informing both coverage and capacity deployments through a combination of additional 2300MHz carriers and Massive MIMO in certain cases. We are currently upgrading on average over 100 sites per month; and dare I say, we have demonstrated that we have the muscle for 5G!“

Hugo van Zyl, Management Executive: Mobile, Telkom

Commenting on the future, van Zyl said Telkom plans to use all current spectrum and additional auction acquired spectrum to operate LTE 5G and beyond in line with customer expectations and evident digital acceleration in the market