The first use of telecommunication in South Africa happened in April 1860 was a single line telegraph connecting Cape Town and Simonstown.

[8] Telkom acquired Business Connexion in August 2015 for approximately ZAR 2.6 billion with the strategic intent of obtaining a significant presence in the Information Technology (IT) market in South Africa.

[9] This was the second attempt at the acquisition by Telkom and was subject to a number of prescribed conditions set out by the competition authorities i.e. one of which was to ensure minimal impact on staff retrenchments.

The integration of the two organisations enabled a new and compelling value proposition to be offered to private and public business customers in the domestic market.

Jeffrey Hedberg was appointed acting group chief executive officer on 7 July 2010 following Reuben September's resignation.

Most ISPs in South Africa, such as Afrihost, utilise Telkom's copper infrastructure for reselling ADSL services.

[24][25][26][27][28] The Telkom Music Powered by JOOX app was reviewed by Arthur Goldstuck, founder of World Wide Worx.

Recent legislation passed by the South African government have lowered many restrictions on companies wishing to provide telecommunication access in the Republic.

Examples of these providers include Sentech, an extension of the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation, and WBS Co., a black owned enterprise.

Neotel plans to initially use CDMA-2000 wireless technology for the last mile infrastructure due to the government and ICASA's (the regulator) inability and unwillingness to unbundle the local-loop, leading some to suggest that it's not much more than a cellular operator instead of the much needed competitor to Telkom.

There are approximately six times as many cellphone subscribers than land line subscribers in South Africa (30 million versus 5 million), and since these networks route their calls over their own network, GSM providers have taken a large chunk of Telkom's business, one reason for this is that many see Telkom as being an inept corporation, only interested in making money, failing to consider the customer.

Another promising technology is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which may decrease the number of calls made over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) in the near future.

Telkom operates in 38 countries in Africa, from regional hubs in Nigeria and Kenya via an integrated service provider strategy .

Via Africa Online, Telkom intends leveraging its international capacity to deploy satellite based Internet access.

Telkom's monopoly, backed by government investment, over fixed line provision and international access is often pointed out as the primary reason for the high costs of telecommunications.

[30][31] The continuing monopoly of Telkom in South Africa's communications industry, and government's large stake in the company, have been perceived by the public, consumers, and the private sector[by whom?]

The South African telecommunications regulator ICASA is overburdened and restricted in its capabilities as handed down by the Department of Communications.

Telkom has also attracted attention for improperly conducting itself in a contract dispute with Telcordia on account of non-delivery of an integrated FlowThru solution,[buzzword] resulting in a decision from the Supreme Court of Appeal against its favor in which the judge described Telkom's legal team as conducting "verbal manipulation".

The page was used as a public outcry, detailing some of the things Telkom has done, in hopes of bringing more attention to the current situation in South Africa's telecoms industry.

This has caused an uproar in the South African P2P and online gaming community as one has to pay over exorbitant prices (roughly two times more) to get their connections "unshaped.

"[33] In June 2013, Telkom accepted a R200 million fine to settle complaints that it used its dominant market position to block competition from other network providers.