Telkom is looking at rolling out 20Mbps ADSL services to provide customers – especially in the business market – with higher speed broadband access.

Telkom is looking at rolling out 20Mbps ADSL services to provide customers – especially in the business market – with higher speed broadband access.

Dr. Brian Armstrong, Senior Managing Executive for Enterprise Markets at Telkom, reaffirmed Telkom’s commitment to provide businesses with products they want, adding that higher broadband access speed is something people ‘constantly strive for.’

Armstrong highlighted that half of their business customers now have 10Mbps ADSL access, showing the definite demand for high speed access services.

No specifics about a potential 20Mbps ADSL service have been made public, but to provide such a service ,a shorter local loop length is a must.

Armstrong said that the shortening of the local loop through initiatives such as fibre-to-the-curb forms part of Telkom’s network renewal and upgrade program.

It is understood that these upgrades will mainly be focused on areas where it makes financial sense – hence South Africa’s major cities.

New Telkom CEO Pinky Moholi previously said that there is also a drive to take old technologies out of their network which are creating bottlenecks, giving the example of the ATM network being replaced by Metro-Ethernet.

When it comes to Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTX), Armstrong said that demand will have to drive such an initiative. “If we see a big demand for FTTX offerings we will act to satisfy that demand,” said Armstrong.