Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong discusses the company’s impressive fibre and data centre infrastructure

On this episode of What’s Next with Aki Anastasiou, Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong discusses the company’s evolution into an Infraco. Taukobong studied at the University of Cape Town, where he completed a BSc degree in chemistry, and went on to study executive management courses at IMD in Switzerland, GIBS, INSEAD in Singapore, and the Wharton School of Business. In 2018, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Telkom’s consumer business, and he grew Telkom’s mobile business by over 300% before being appointed as the Telkom Group CEO in June 2022. In this What’s Next interview, Taukobong provides an overview of how the South African telecommunications landscape has evolved in recent years. He then unpacks Telkom’s impressive network infrastructure — both in terms of Openserve’s fibre network and Telkom Mobile’s network coverage — before explaining why Telkom has pursued an infrastructure play. Taukobong also discusses the major telecommunications trends and opportunities he expects to see locally in 2024. He concludes the interview by explaining how Telkom’s strategy for the future is focused on prioritising areas in which it is particularly strong – such as its fibre and data centre businesses.