• Telkom has announced increased pricing for 2023 across the majority of its consumer-facing products.
• This is similar to increases announced by MTN earlier this month.
• The service provider says mobile, DSL, and voice will increase from 1st April, while FTTH will rise from 1st May.

Earlier this month MTN announced price hikes to its contract subscriptions, citing ongoing loadshedding, rising operating costs, and a global economic downturn. Now Telkom customers are set to feel the pinch, with the service provider confirming price increases of its own, with them set to take effect across most of its consumer-facing products.

“In efforts to continually maintain quality service and deliver relevant offerings to our valued consumer and small enterprise customers, Telkom South Africa has announced price increases for the Mobile, DSL & Voice portfolios, effective 1 April 2023 and FTTH (Fibre to the Home) products effective 1 May 2023, respectively,” the service provider confirmed in a press release sent to Hypertext.

“We understand that price increases are never easy, and we want to assure our customers that we have done everything possible to minimize the impact on them. The country’s economic challenges, including rising inflation, have made it necessary for Telkom to adjust prices to maintain the high level of service our customers have come to expect. The price increase also comes with continued improvement of our products even in challenging times,” added Lunga Siyo, CEO of Telkom Consumer and Small Business, in an effort to provide some solace.

Further unpacking the increases, the company said that DSL and voice will see an overall average increase of 8.4 percent. The Yep! portfolio will rise by an average of 7 percent, with fixed voice increasing prices by an average of 8.8 percent.

An 8 percent average price increase will be implemented across all DSL products, including expired and active bundles, Do Bundles (Soft Cap), Unlimited Home Lite Bundles, Home Unlimited Premium Bundles & DSL access-only services.

As for FTTH products, an average increase of 11 percent will be applied. “This is mainly due to an increase in fees by our wholesale network operator. However, this increase in rates will be combined with an increase in speeds across the board. Consumers will therefore be getting more value with the increased prices,” Telkom points out.

Shifting to mobile, certain prices will increase on average by 5 percent in monthly subscription costs, however, these increases are for products within the SmartBroadband Data portfolio. Added to this will be an increase on several data bundles and out of bundle rates for mobile voice, SMS, and data services. This will result in an increase on most tariffs, with out of bundle voice rates increasing from R0.75 to R0.80 per minute, and data rates increasing from R0.32 to R0.35 per MB.

A full list of increases for 2023 across the various portfolios can be found in the PDF embedded below.