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
The DoC DTT project team is accelerating its efforts to “revive” South Africa’s long-anticipated transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

After a delay of more than six years, the next few weeks are expected to be a hive of activity as the DoC will implement “critical parts of the DTT roadmap” and synchronise the relevant roleplayers’ plans with the newly gazetted Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) policy.

The DoC, which assumed responsibility for the multibillion-rand project in November 2014, is engaging manufacturers and broadcasters, as well as the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), signal distributor Sentech, the South African Post Office (Sapo), the Universal Service Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa) and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).

DoC DTT programme head Solly Mokoetle has told Engineering News Online that most of the stakeholders are ready to progress with the transition; however, there is a need to “dust off” and adjust plans after the multiyear delay in the deployment of DTT.

“The policies are now done … [it is] time for implementation,” he says.

However, with South Africa set to miss the International Telecommunications Union- (ITU-) stipulated deadline of June 17 for the switch to digital signals, the biggest challenge will be mitigating the after-effects of that failure.

After the deadline, ITU will lift its protection of South Africa’s analogue frequencies. This means that the country will no longer be protected against disruptions of the radio waves that are used for analogue television broadcasts.

Various potential mitigating solutions are being considered, with the possibility of a Ministerial summit being held to that effect.

The DoC is working to secure high-level cooperation with Ministers from Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to harmonise the switchovers and release of digital dividend to limit broadcasting inference from neighbouring countries.

Regulators from South Africa and its neighbours are meeting in Mozambique to map out regulatory options to mitigate the interruptions expected after the deadline.

Sentech, which has achieved 100% geographic signal coverage, with 84% of the population covered, is working to ensure the system is stabilised and robust. It will also provide mitigation measures from a technical perspective.

As the deadline will not be met, the digital switch-on and analogue switch-off will need to start at the borderline regions – the regions most vulnerable to broadcasting interruptions – which is an adjustment from initial plans of starting the digital transition inland.

“It is a method to buy time,” Mokoetle says, as the DoC works to distribute free STBs, which are required to intercept digital broadcasting frequencies, to five-million of South Africa’s poorest TV-owning households.

He adds that, in a week’s time, the department will have determined which town and which transmitter to switch off first, as well as which areas to distribute the required STBs to first, once the much-anticipated tender is awarded.

Usaasa is expected to select a winning bidder to manufacture and supply the government-subsidised STBs in April.

However, Mokoetle believes that Usaasa has “jumped the gun” in issuing the tender before the BDM policy and certain STB specifications have been finalised, particularly the decision to include a control system without conditional access.

He points out that the process has some useful gains, with the department now aware of how many potential STB manufacturers there are in South Africa, their capabilities and the potential pricing of STBs, which has not yet been finalised.

The DoC is working with the SABS to finalise the SANS 862 direct-to-home (DTH) satellite STB specifications for DTT transmissions by April.

DTH will service difficult-to-reach regions where the deployment of terrestrial connection is deemed uneconomical.

The terrestrial STB standards have already been finalised, which enables manufacturers to proceed.

Meanwhile, it has been determined that Sapo needs to rework its STB distribution plan, as it is deemed too elaborate.

Sapo has designed a delivery system based on a partially subsidised STB – dependent on DTH or DTT units – which has resulted in a plan too “complex and expensive” for the now-free STBs.

Government initially aimed to subsidise up to 66% of the price of a DTT STB and up to 77% of the price of DTH STBs.

Usaasa is also fine-tuning the identification of the qualifying households using the Mean test, data from Statistics South Africa and Department of Social Development grant information, besides others.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
The project is six 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 South African Bureau of Standards 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.