---
title: Openserve no longer for sale, says South Africa’s Telkom - Developing Telecoms
description: South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider Telkom has suspended plans to sell part of its fibre business, Openserve, according to a statement by CEO Serame Taukobong this week.
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date: 2024-11-19T17:30:56Z
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South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider Telkom has suspended plans to sell part of its fibre business, Openserve, according to a statement by CEO Serame Taukobong this week.

It appears that the fixed broadband service offered by Openserve, South Africa's largest telecommunications infrastructure provider, has helped drive the company’s half-year income. Indeed shares in Telkom, reportedly rose after it reported that half-year adjusted headline earnings per share grew by 57.5%.

As Reuters points out, Telkom, which owns a big chunk of the fast-growing home and business fibre market, last year wanted to list the business separately or sell a minority stake in it to unlock more value. Indeed, [in early 2023 we reported](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/14545-telkom-explores-minority-stake-sale-in-fibre-arm.html) that Telkom was gauging market interest in the sale of a minority stake in Openserve.

Now, however, Taukobong has stated that discussions or investigations into partnerships for Openserve have been suspended and made it clear that Openserve will remain a core and critical part of the group’s strategy.

Telkom has been investing in migrating customers away from copper-based technology to faster, next-generation network (NGN) offerings such as fibre and 4G/LTE.

NGN revenue now contributes 80.9% to operating revenue, up from 74.4% in the previous period, offsetting the impact of the group’s decision to ditch legacy services.

Telkom has not held onto all its units, however. [Earlier this year it confirmed the sale](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/optical-fixed-networks/16463-telkom-south-africa-tower-unit-buyer-is-reportedly-actis.html) of its tower unit Swiftnet for US$355 million to infrastructure-focused private equity firm Actis.

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