Telkom’s head of wholesale and networks, Bashier Sallie, announced at a press briefing today (2 September 2012) that they would be launching a high-speed broadband pilot project.
Sallie said that the project would be focusing on FTTx (replacing part of its copper infrastructure with optical fibre), and high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) services.
Telkom first announced a project to replace its existing DSL infrastructure at telephone exchanges with multi-service access nodes (MSANs) during March 2012.
Shortly after the announcement, ZTE Mzansi brought an interdict against Telkom, halting the project. Telkom was granted leave to appeal in May 2012, allowing the company to continue revamping its network.
It is understood that the MSAN project has proceeded well, despite challenges which included the interdict, a deal with KT Corp to acquire Telkom shares falling through, and a fine of R449-million being issued by the Competition Tribunal.
At the press event where it unveiled its MSAN project, Telkom’s head of network infrastructure provisioning, Alphonzo Samuels, explained that MSANs can be used to offer higher speed ADSL (ADSL 2+), very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL), and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services.
Samuels said that they wanted to be ready to kick off the pilot project in July 2012, with technical testing running for a period of 3–6 months.
Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/58757-40mbps-vdsl-and-fttx-pilot-announced.html
