Telkom 40Mbps, 20Mbps DSL launches next week

Telkom announced today that its 20Mbps and 40Mbps high speed broadband trials has been a success, and that the company plans to launch these services commercially on 4 March 2013.

The pilot started in October 2012 and has given participating Internet customers access to speeds of up to 20Mbps and up to 40Mbps.

“The pilot has seen participating customers experience broadband speed and throughput of an outstanding quality,” said Telkom’s Wholesale and Networks Managing Director, Bashier Sallie.

Telkom said that ninety percent of participants on the 20Mbps services consistently synced at 20Mbps and 74% of the 40Mbps participants consistently synced at 40Mbps.

Based on this success, Telkom Wholesale is now planning to launch DSL up to 20Mbps and DSL up to 40Mpbs options to the market from 4 March 2013.

The new higher speed VDSL services are a result of the network upgrade that Telkom completed in the pilot areas consisting of 53 street distribution cabinet (SDC) sites in five exchange areas.

These are Benmore Gardens, Fourways, and Waterkloof in Gauteng, Durban North in KwaZulu-Natal, and Durbanville in the Western Cape.

The upgrades entail, amongst others, replacing DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology with Multi Service Access Nodes (MSANs).

Telkom added that customers can use the DSL tracker tool from 4 March to check if they are within the coverage areas – http://www.telkom.co.za/checkadsl/