This triggered discussion on the crisis in the Russian space industry with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev quoted as saying "We are losing authority and billions of rubles" due to the frequent launch failures.
Calls to the Crisis Line are free from South African telephone networks Telkom, Vodacom and CellC, with the exception of MTN.
Perhaps most notably the Hillbrow Tower in Johannesburg was officially named the J.G. Strijdom Tower until 1995 shortly after the conclusion of apartheid when it was renamed the Telkom Hillbrow Tower.
Organisations which took credit were technology sponsors Picturetel and Telkom, plus Peacecast organisors Unity 95, Parallel University, Vortex, Creativity Cafe and line producer "Cybersafari to Africa".
The company had an installed base of millions of lines in over 100 countries worldwide, including Germany (Deutsche Telekom), Turkey (Turk Telekom), Brazil (Brazil Telecom, Telefonica & Global Village Telecom), Chile (Telefonica), Mexico (Telmex), Costa Rica (ICE), Israel (Bezeq), South Africa (Telkom), Australia (Telstra), Russia (Uralsviazinform & North West Telecom), Serbia (Telekom Srbija, Telenor) and Kazakhstan (KazakhTelecom).
He took particular issue with the Public Investment Corporation's Telkom share purchase, involving former communications director-general Andile Ngcaba and the former head of the presidency Smuts Ngonyama.