Muthambi eyes 18-month DTT implementation
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Friday placed an 18-month deadline on the implementation of South Africa’s migration from analogue to digital broadcasting – despite no digital switch-on and analogue switch-off dates having been set yet.
Speaking on the third day of the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association-hosted Digital Broadcasting Now conference, in Randburg, on Friday, she said that the Department of Communications (DoC) and all stakeholders would embark on a recently completed implementation plan for the long-delayed multibillion-rand project.
South Africa, which would miss the International Telecommunications Union-stipulated digital migration deadline of June 17, was now “well on track” with digital migration, with all the necessary policies amended and finalised and progress on the issue of the disputed set-top boxes (STBs) well advanced.
However, it was not clear what impact free-to-air broadcaster e.tv’s decision to take the DoC to court to have some provisions of the recently gazetted Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) policy reviewed would have on the process.
In March, the DoC published the amended policy stipulating that the five-million government-subsidised STBs would contain a control system.
e.tv requested that the provision stating that the subsidised STBs would not have the capability to encrypt broadcast signals be set aside and that the provision wherein the STB control system was nonmandatory be amended.
Meanwhile, the digital terrestrial television regulations developed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa were also ready, Muthambi told conference delegates on Friday.
Further, bilateral agreements with South Africa’s neighbouring countries would also be concluded by June to harmonise spectrum between the countries and limit the interruptions to the analogue transmissions, the protection of which would be lifted in two months.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation