Telecommunications giant Telkom on Tuesday announced the unbundling of its wholesale and networks division into a new venture aimed at bridging South Africa’s digital divide.

The functional separation into a revamped autonomous Openserve, headed up by Alphonzo Samuels, removed a “critical” stumbling block to Telkom’s success and introduced a new era of partnership and connection and collaborative innovation in a more open access environment.

“Our actions today set us on an irreversible path to connectivity,” Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said at the launch of the equal access network company that the group believed would level the playing field in the telecommunications industry.

The open connectivity provider vowed to be “fair, equitable and transparent”, treating all licensed operators equally to ensure a level playing field and better connectivity for South Africans.

“We will be purposefully rolling out our high-speed fibre-to-the-home service – available on an open-access basis to all licensed operators. In parallel, we will be making our copper cables work extra hard to provide Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, or ADSL, services, filling the gaps in coverage with wireless technology and offering an array of high speed services,” the new standalone business said in its brochure.

The separation of the wholesale and retail divisions allowed Telkom to facilitate greater focus, accountability and customer-centricity through a more flexible and agile operating model.

“Over the past two years, our strategy has delivered positive results, but it is not yet complete. We have tackled inefficiency, complexity and high costs and our quest to improve our customer experience remains a primary focus.

“But, to fundamentally change the way we do business, while also working to take up a meaningful and impactful role in an increasingly open-access environment, we have had to review our operating model,” explained Maseko.

As a standalone business unit within Telkom, Openserve would be responsible for its own profit and loss account.