Telkom said it has upgraded over 96% of its prepaid fixed-line customers to wireless prepaid services, which the company said will improve their customer experience.

Telkom explained that its wireless service is more reliable than its copper-based technology and is less susceptible to interruptions as a result of adverse weather conditions, faults and cable theft.

“Based on the success of the upgrades, Telkom is now ready to discontinue its legacy copper-based fixed line prepaid service platform and will do so with effect from 1 August 2019,” the company said.

Speaking to MyBroadband, Telkom CVM managing executive Bertus Van Der Vyver said that the very few customers who couldn’t be migrated will have their service shut off.

“We tried everything to contact these customers,” Van Der Vyver said. “They will have their service discontinued, and they will need to come in to a Telkom store or otherwise contact us to take out a wireless voice service.”

Van Der Vyver said that customers postpaid fixed-line customers are also being migrated, although their service remains active, with the company offering various Smart Voice packages which offer better value and features on newer infrastructure.

DSL migration is next

Following the successful migration of its prepaid fixed-line customers, Telkom is now migrating postpaid fixed copper-based voice and DSL customers to fibre and wireless.

Telkom said its customers have responded well to the SmartVoice, SmartBroadband Wireless and Unlimited Home fibre offerings.

Telkom added that this migration supports its overall strategic objective to decommission and replace its legacy copper technology.

While Telkom aims to have as little interruption as possible during the decommission, customers experiencing issues can report them to Telkom on 10210.