South African telecommunications service provider Telkom has announced that its networks organisation, representing 8 600 employees, will join the autonomous wholesale networks division Openserve.

The division focuses on trade in broadband and connectivity services to consumer and enterprise customers, and was launched in October 2015 as part of Telkom's turnaround strategy.

It was introduced to reposition Telkom to be more competitive within the wholesale network space and contribute towards what its leadership have described as an increasingly open-access broadband environment.

In same week Telkom declared its three-year turnaround strategy a success, it also announced a collaborative partnership agreement with organised labour – represented by the South African Communications Union and Solidarity, .

Marius Croucamp, Solidarity Deputy General Secretary, described the agreement reached in Johannesburg yesterday as a landmark deal for the industry and one that involved numerous complicated issues which had to be ironed out. He said members were happy with the agreement and made specific mention of no forced retrenchments for the next two years and an increase of 6% on basic salaries payable from 1 April 2017.

Telkom has confirmed that transfer of staff, including engineers and technicians responsible for technology and network strategy, planning and engineering around both the core and the access network.

Alphonzo Samuels, CEO of Openserve, said, "When we say our vision is to be an open connectivity provider people can count on, we are addressing a national imperative – to address the digital divide and to democratise broadband access. "