Telkom’s mobile strategy for 2018 is simple: reduce the cost to communicate and provide all South Africans with greater Internet access.
The company shook up the mobile data market in 2017 with aggressively-priced products and zero-rated streaming and social media addons – and consumers can expect more of the same in 2018.
“Consumers can expect Telkom to continue to disrupt the data market with product innovation that continues to offer free data content,” said Telkom.
It said it will “maintain its position as consumer champion as we look to offering customers further parity between our prepaid and postpaid offerings”.
There will also be a renewed focus on reviving its prepaid portfolio, which will be welcomed by consumers who are not keen on signing a 24-month contract.
To ensure it has the infrastructure to support the anticipated data growth, Telkom said it will invest significantly in infrastructure development.
“We have already begun the rollout of a Massive MIMO that will enable better throughput speeds and improved coverage, leading to a better overall experience for consumers,” said Telkom.
Telkom said it will also continue its drive to improve the customer experience in 2018, as it looks to transform its back-office administration systems.
Big telecoms trends
Telkom said certain telecoms trends from 2017 wil continue into 2018, including over-the-top streaming services.
“Consumers now expect increased access to the content they want, when they want it, and telcos are gearing up to meet this demand,” said Telkom.
The company also believes that further deployment of LTE as a wireless access technology will result in improvements in broadband coverage and accessibility across the country in 2018 and beyond.
Another big trend is the move away from traditional mobile voice services to voice-over-IP.
“In 2018, we anticipate that customers will continue migrating traditional circuit-switched voice to VoIP and VoIP VAS services. This trend would provide mobility to the fixed-line voice service.”
The trends above will result in an increased demand for high-quality home Wi-Fi, to support multiple connected devices.
“This will require additional high-speed access points and Wi-Fi mesh technologies,” said Telkom.
