Telkom halts price cuts

JOHANNESBURG – South African fixed-line phone firm Telkom expects to lose less market share than first thought to Neotel due to its new rival’s slow start, and said on Thursday it would stop “drastic” price cuts for broadband access.

Telkom executives told analysts it still expects flat to slightly lower revenue at its fixed-line business this year, but declined to say whether it would be able to offset falling voice revenues with new multimedia services next year and beyond. Africa’s biggest telecoms firm said the longer it took South Africa’s regulator to smash its monopoly, and the longer it took Neotel to get off the ground, the better chance Telkom had of defending turnover at its core fixed-line business.”The fact that the market has lagged on the competitive and regulatory fronts is giving us time to do more smart stuff on the retail front,” said Steven Hayward, managing executive of Retail Marketing, in remarks broadcast on the web.Executives from Telkom, which is facing tougher competition from rival Neotel and mobile firms, were speaking at a presentation to analysts aimed at bolstering the case for its expensive next-generation network.Chief Financial Officer Kaushik Patel said Telkom now expects to lose about 10 per cent of its fixed-line market share over the next 3-5 years – at the bottom end of an earlier forecast for about 10-15 per cent.Nampa-ReutersAfrica’s biggest telecoms firm said the longer it took South Africa’s regulator to smash its monopoly, and the longer it took Neotel to get off the ground, the better chance Telkom had of defending turnover at its core fixed-line business.”The fact that the market has lagged on the competitive and regulatory fronts is giving us time to do more smart stuff on the retail front,” said Steven Hayward, managing executive of Retail Marketing, in remarks broadcast on the web.Executives from Telkom, which is facing tougher competition from rival Neotel and mobile firms, were speaking at a presentation to analysts aimed at bolstering the case for its expensive next-generation network.Chief Financial Officer Kaushik Patel said Telkom now expects to lose about 10 per cent of its fixed-line market share over the next 3-5 years – at the bottom end of an earlier forecast for about 10-15 per cent.Nampa-Reuters