Telkom scales back network resilience investments after decline in Eskom rolling blackouts

Telkom is paring down investments into initiatives aimed at making its telecommunications network more resilient to the effects of Eskom blackouts as the country’s electricity situation and outlook have improved in recent months. 

Telkom — like its telecommunications rivals Vodacom and MTN — has spent billions of rands over the past two years on solar power, generators and lithium batteries to keep its cellphone towers running during Eskom blackouts.  

The towers, which are critical for mobile and internet connectivity, depend on a stable electricity supply to function efficiently. 

In Telkom’s case, it spent up to R2-billion fitting cellphone towers with backup electricity measures while sacrificing higher profits in the process, as the funds could have been used to expand its operations.

However, Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong said the investment has paid off as the company’s average network availability — a measure of reliability in the face of disruptions, including blackouts — improved to 92% during the year ending March 2024.  

“I think all of us [Telkom and its rivals] have adapted and we’ve assumed that load shedding is the norm,” Taukobong told Daily Maverick, adding that its previous investments are now carrying Telkom’s network and making it resilient when there are power disruptions. 

The investments currently being rolled out by Telkom are aimed at safeguarding its cellphone towers and infrastructure from theft and vandalism, which have become pervasive. 

Telecommunications companies have not needed to rely on their backup electricity measures because the country has largely experienced relief from Eskom blackouts for nearly three months. 

Eskom officials, the Presidency and the private sector have joined forces to monitor the performance of Eskom power stations and improve their response to fixing breakdowns, which caused blackouts.  

The interventions have prompted the Presidency and business to predict that higher stages of Eskom blackouts would end in 2024, but if load shedding persisted during the year, the worst-case scenario was that it would be restricted to Stage 1. Both parties believe that blackouts will end entirely in 2025.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Presidency, big business double down on forecasted end to Eskom blackouts by 2025

Taukobong said the threat of higher Eskom blackout stages remains, and the operator was ready to roll out more investments to further make its network resilient and available.  

“If Stage 6 or Stage 8 pops up again, we’ll have to do upgrades [to the network], but not to the level that we had to do 18 months ago,” he said. 

Financial turnaround