Is Telkom down in my area today ?

A national operator combining fixed and mobile services

Telkom offers mobile voice and data plans, home broadband via ADSL and fibre, and bundled fixed-voice packages for households. It serves millions of users nationwide and is one of the few providers that control both fixed and mobile infrastructure.

The brand is well known for its competitive broadband bundles and its large customer base relying on Openserve, its wholesale division, for fibre and copper access.

Infrastructure ownership and typical outage causes

Telkom operates its own mobile network (3G, 4G and 5G in main cities) and, through Openserve, owns a vast fixed network of copper and fibre lines. This dual structure makes Telkom both a retailer and an infrastructure provider.

Outages may come from:

• Mobile towers experiencing power or backhaul failure
• Fibre or copper line cuts on the Openserve backbone
• Regional maintenance windows coordinated with third-party ISPs

Telkom’s fixed network is generally reliable in urban areas, but rural regions still depend on legacy copper, which is more prone to disruptions.

How to check status and get support

If your Telkom internet or mobile service is down, here's what you can do:

1. Report a line fault via the official portal → Telkom Fault Reporting
2. Check coverage for your area → Telkom Coverage Checker
3. Contact support:

• 📞 From a Telkom mobile: 081 180
• 💬 Use the live chat available on telkom.co.za

1. Track restoration progress via your account dashboard if you logged a fault online.

Telkom also publishes scheduled maintenance updates and service restoration notices directly on its website.

R655 million in 2023 to swap legacy batteries for solar and lithium-ion

Telkom invested more than R655 million in 2023 to expand power storage at its base stations and reduce the dependence on diesel during load shedding.

The strategy is to move away from legacy lead-acid batteries and standby generators, and use solar panels as the primary energy source where possible, with lithium-ion batteries for backup. Lithium-ion has higher capacity, faster recharge cycles and longer lifespan than the legacy equipment it replaces.

In parallel, Telkom has been decommissioning legacy 2G and 3G equipment at sites and consolidating capacity on more energy-efficient 4G and 5G radios. The company describes its approach as the post-resilience era: instead of layering generators on top of generators, it tries to reduce the energy demand of each site at source. Telkom is aiming to align its energy strategy with Science-Based Targets, with a net-zero ambition for 2040.

Battery and cable theft remains the biggest practical risk. Telkom reported that 7 841 of its batteries were stolen in a single year during the worst of the load shedding period, with the financial impact equivalent to about 35 new base stations.

To follow live outage reports across Telkom mobile and fibre customers, see the South Africa power outage map. To check whether a wider event is load shedding rather than a Telkom-specific issue, see the load shedding page.