MyADSL's Duncan McLeod reports that South Africa's Telkom is increasing its investment in fixed-line infrastructure to try to reclaim the market share it has lost to mobile operators.

"It would be foolhardy for anyone to think we are sitting here waiting to die," says Thami Msimango, the company's CTO. "The fight is on."

Telkom says it wants to have more than a million broadband customers by 2010. "Getting fiber optic infrastructure, which is capable of delivering data at very high speeds, closer to consumers is crucial," he writes. "Telkom is already digging up roads and pavements in some city suburbs as it extends its fiber network."

But it's not all about wired solutions. "The company is also about to begin building a wireless broadband network using a new technology known as mobile WiMAX, the standard for which was recently ratified by the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE)," McLeod writes.

"I call WiMAX the revenge of the fixed-line operator," Msimango says.