Name and Location
Digital broadcasting migration project, South Africa.

Client
The Department of Communications (DoC) and Sentech.

Project Description
Digital terrestrial television (DTT) is the implementation of digital technology to provide more channels and/or better picture quality and sound using a conventional television antenna or aerial, instead of a satellite dish or cable connection.

In 2005, State-owned enterprise Sentech announced its plans to roll out DTT using digital video broadcasting terrestrial (DVB-T) technology, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Initially, there will be two DVB-T transmitters for each location or site.

The first phase of the project involves upgrading the Sentech broadcast network and duplicating the current analogue network channels on a digital system.

Most of the 220 sites needed to broadcast DTT to 92% of South Africa's population are in place, but have to be upgraded to become fully digital. Once that process has been completed, DTT and analogue systems will run simultaneously (a dual-illumination process) until South Africa is ready to switch off analogue transmission. This decision will be made by government.

Consumers will require a set-top box (STB) to decode the signal, even for public broadcasting and free-to-air channels. The STBs are expected to be subsidised.

Once the migration to DTT is complete, the country will no longer have exclusive use of the frequencies.

Value
The upgrade is expected to cost R1-billion.

Supplying the STBs will cost an estimated R2.45-billion.

Duration
According to an agreement with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the country has until 2015 to complete the migration.

Latest Developments
South Africa needs to move faster to unlock the digital dividend expected from the migration from analogue to DTT, as the June 17, 2015 deadline for the analogue switch-off looms, said Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on the first day of the Commonwealth Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum 2015, which was held in Fourways, from February 17 to 19.

“We do not have a choice, we have to migrate as soon as possible,” she said, highlighting that government, broadcasters and consumers, collectively, had to do everything in their power to avert the dire consequences of not migrating to DTT.

South Africa, along with several other African countries, must complete the migration or face frequency disruption as the International Telecommunication Union lifts the protection on the analogue television signals.

It had been “quite a long time” since South Africa embarked on the process of moving the broadcasting frequencies over to digital, Mathumbi noted; however, she added that the same could be said of other African countries – with mixed results.

Some African countries have made good progress in migrating to the digital signal, while others have failed to gain any traction.

While no details were offered, she noted that the countries failing to meet the deadline would face serious challenges with tough lessons to be learned.

In the opening speech to the conference, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation secretary-general Professor Tim Unwin noted that countries struggling with the switchover needed to realise that it was likely the deadline would be missed and that solutions needed to be developed now to mitigate the imminent disputes and challenges they would have to deal with.

It was a reality that Africa was not going to universally complete the migration in time, which brought to a head the practical issues of running both analogue and digital frequencies post the deadline.

However, while many African countries grappled with their migrations, Mauritius, Tanzania and Rwanda had already completed the switchover, with the migration process ongoing in Botswana, Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
The project is five-and-a-half-years behind schedule.

There have been several migration delays since South Africa reached an agreement with the ITU in 2006 to migrate from an analogue to a digital signal by mid- 2015.

One of the major stumbling blocks was the dispute about whether the STBs should have a control system.

The South African Communications Forum previously told Engineering News Online that delays in South Africa’s transition to digital television had cost the country’s STB manufacturing industry more than R50-million and had stressed that any more delays would lead to further losses.

Former Communications Minister Yunus Carrim pointed out that the scrapping of the control system resulted in a further 36-week delay – and not the six-month delay as was initially thought – as the SABS needed to rework the STB specifications (SANS 862) to exclude the STB control system.

Contact Details for Project Information
DoC media liaison officer Siya Qoza, tel +27 12 427 8511.
Sentech, tel +27 11 691 7000.