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Johannesburg - Olympic star Usain Bolt has teamed up with Telkom to promote the company’s fibre broadband technology as it attempts catching up with competitors.
Jamaica's Bolt is the fastest sprinter ever to hold both the 100 and 200 metres world records. He was also the first man to win six olympic gold medals in sprinting.
Telkom then has tapped the star to promote the company’s fibre broadband offerings which promise speeds of up to 100Mbps.
“We believe that Bolt, as the fastest person in the world, will assist us in creating awareness of the speed, consistency and reliability that fibre technology offers,” said Telkom’s Chief Marketing Officer, Enzo Scarcella, in a statement.
Telkom caught off guard
But the Usain Bolt marketing campaign comes after independent fibre broadband providers have given Telkom a run for its money.
Independent fibre providers such as Vumatel, Fibrehoods and even mobile network MTN have been embarking on extensive fibre broadband installations in major metros like Johannesburg.
Vumatel, for example, started with a single fibre network installation in Johannesburg's Parkhurst last year but it now plans to reach 100 000 homes by 2016. Vumatel has also received an investment boost from banking firm Investec.
And the rise of these players, which turn to homeowners’ associations for permission to install these networks, has taken Telkom by surprise.
“I think it’s an interesting phenomenon that probably took us by surprise,” Alphonzo Samuels, the managing director for Telkom’s new wholesale broadband division Openserve, told Fin24 in October.
READ: Fibre players took Telkom by surprise
Meanwhile, at Telkom’s annual results briefing in Johannesburg in June, the company’s group chief executive officer Sipho Maseko also said that there were about 25 fibre broadband infrastructure providers in SA at that stage.
“So it is getting tough out there,” Maseko told attendees at the annual results briefing in June.
Maseko at the time added that “as a company we need to make the right response” and that “clearly, we’re being attacked from all fronts”.
READ: Telkom feels the heat from fibre competitors
In September, Maseko then announced that Telkom is targeting reaching one million homes with fibre by 2018. And in October, Telkom also announced its new wholesale broadband division Openserve. Like its independent fibre competitors, Openserve is promising an open access network to allow consumers to use the infrastructure but choose their own internet service provider.
Openserve’s Samuels told Fin24 in October that the company at that stage had “passed in excess of 37 000 homes with fibre” and that it planned to be at “70 000 by the end of this fiscal year”. Thereafter, Telkom is targeting 400 000 connections in the following 12 months as part of its goal to reach one million connections by 2018.
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