Telkom says it hasn\u2019t financially committed to a new African undersea cable despite signing a memorandum of understanding on the project.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Hong Kong ICT firm PCCW released a statement saying that it along with Telkom, MTN, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Telecom Egypt (TE) signed a memorandum of understanding to build Africa-1.<\/p>\n
The Africa-1 submarine cable broadband system is planned to stretch 12 000km from South Africa towards Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan. A construction and maintenance agreement is expected to be signed by June with the cable planned to go live in the third quarter of 2017, said the statement.<\/p>\n
PCCW\u2019s statement further quoted Telkom\u2019s networking engineering and build managing executive as saying the cable would complement \u201cexisting high-bandwidth cable systems in the region\u201d and \u201cprovide more diversity for the large volume broadband traffic from South Africa to the rest of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Telkom has indicated it hasn\u2019t fully committed itself to the cable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Africa1 Group has been conducting preliminary talks with industry players to establish interest in a new undersea cable along the East coast,\u201d Jacqui O\u2019 Sullivan, Telkom\u2019s spokesperson, told Fin24.<\/p>\n
\u201cTelkom has participated in these talks but has not committed to any investment in the initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are always looking for ways to best collaborate within the industry but importantly, any such collaboration would have to be in a manner that added value to the business,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, MTN has not yet responded to Fin24\u2019s request for comment on its involvement in Africa-1.<\/p>\n
If the Africa-1 project goes ahead, it would join other subsea broadband cables such as Seacom, which landed on local shores in 2009.<\/p>\n
The announcement by PCCW regarding the Africa-1 cable comes after Telkom has been shedding jobs in South Africa in a bid to cut costs.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Telkom confirmed to Fin24 that it received 1 629 applications for the company\u2019s voluntary severance and early retirement packages.<\/p>\n
The company has subsequently approved 73% of these applications, allowing for 1184 people to exit Telkom, a company spokesperson told Fin24.<\/p>\n
Telkom\u2019s job cuts form part of its \u201cturnaround\u201d phase which was initiated last year.<\/p>\n