South African telecommunications company Telkom has won the rights for online coverage of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, a tournament for which it is also a major sponsor.

Telkom beat off competition from Seacom for the tender. Industry sources speculate Telkom closed the deal as they have a ‘more established infrastructure and intra-African network’. Telkom has already laid 128,000km of fibre-optic cable for the event - enough to wrap around the world three times.

"Fifa gave Telkom the opportunity to do the international transmission and we made the offer with competitive prices," said Telkom chief executive Reuben September.

The Telkom tower boasts a 50-tonne, eight-storey high soccer ball which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest steel and fibreglass soccer ball in the world.

Telkom is also a sponsor of the upcoming World Cup, a position for which it pays several million dollars.