Cape Town - The good news is that it’s all systems go for the much-delayed switch to digital TV broadcasting.
The bad news is that its success hinges on one of the country’s least reliable state-owned companies, the SA Post Office, raising the distinct possibility it will take much longer than the 18 months to three years the government has set itself as a target. Other countries have taken up to 14 years to complete the process.
A further delay would mean South Africa would fall even further behind in the race to unlock what is known as the “digital dividend” – a swathe of radio frequency spectrum hogged by television broadcasters which, if freed, would become available for much faster and more widespread wireless broadband.
It holds the promise of enabling universal access to the internet, including for rural and poorer communities locked out of the information age.
Even if things go well, it is likely to take a minimum of four years before that happens, despite South Africa’s commitment to an internationally agreed deadline of June 15 this year.
There is also a high risk that the analogue signal that allows most South Africans to receive free television will be switched off before everyone who qualifies has received a government-sponsored set-top box (STB) to enable them to receive the new digital signal.
Briefing Parliament on the state of readiness for the switch-over this week, Communications Department acting director-general Donald Liphoko said it would gazette the final Broadband Digital Migration Policy next week.
The cabinet approved the policy last week after years of wrangling over whether or not the government-funded STBs would include a control system providing for the encryption of signals and conditional access, similar to the systems on satellite TV decoders.
The cabinet settled on a control system which, officials told Parliament, would not include encryption and access control – a move likely to prevent entrant and existing free-to-air broadcasters from buying high-end content available only on subscription service Dstv.
Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (Usaasa) chief executive Zami Nkosi said the gazetting of the policy would allow it to begin placing orders for the five million STBs the government has decided to provide free to qualifying low-income households. He anticipated the first STBs would begin arriving next month.
At this point the SA Post Office will be expected to fire the starting gun for a massive distribution and installation programme requiring as many as 17 000 STBs to be installed every day.
Given that it has been hit by crippling strikes at regular intervals over the past few years, there are fears it will struggle to keep pace with the demand. “That’s going to be a massive disaster,” said Sekoetlane Phamodi, campaign organiser for the Support Public Broadcasting coalition, known as the SOS Campaign.
The first hurdle would be to register all the qualifying applicants for free STBs – at least five million throughout the country – when many did not understand why there was a need for an STB in the first place, lacked the necessary documentation, or would have to travel from remote villages to fill in the application.
Instead of simply tapping into the Department of Social Development database, as the SOS Campaign had suggested, it appeared from Usaasa’s presentation that it intended to apply its own means test to establish who qualified.
Installation would be another crunch issue, Phamodi said.
While the original installation plan had been to train unemployed people in communities, Usaasa was now talking about appointing private companies with existing networks of installers.
According to its presentation, Usaasa has identified a total of just more than 11 000 installers and may need to train more – a requirement for which there is no funding.
Installation was a Post Office function, but “a high risk area for Usaasa”, its presentation said.
Phamodi said Kenya was an example of what was about to hit this country.
As officials admitted, South Africa would now be forced to opt for, as did Kenya, a hard switch over – essentially pulling the plug on the analogue signal instead of phasing it out to keep pace with the rollout of STBs – only to face a series of bitter court battles amid claims that as much as 90 percent of the population had been left without access to television.
“Government and our MPs really have completely missed the boat on the sheer impact it’s going to have on people,” said Phamodi.
What you need to know
* There are an estimated 12 839 000 television households in South Africa.
* Those with satellite decoders – just over 5m households – will not require a new set-top box to continue receiving the channels they already receive.
* The government will provide free STBs to the poorest 5m of the remaining 7.8m households – subject to verification – who rely on free-to-air television.
* Almost 3m households who don’t qualify for a free STB and who don’t have a satellite decoder will have to buy their own – estimated to cost between R750 and R1 000.
* The first to be affected will be Northern Cape residents who fall in the radio silence field required by law to allow the Square Kilometre Array telescope to function.
The analogue signal must be switched off by the end of the year in this area.
* Because South Africa will miss the June deadline for digital migration, there is a risk that the analogue signal will be disrupted in areas bordering neighbouring countries. These areas will be targeted next for STB distribution.
* The Post Office intends to distribute free STBs in high density areas – Gauteng and the Metropoles in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State – first.
* North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape will be last.
* Sentech, on the other hand, intends to begin switching off the analogue signal in these provinces first, before moving on to KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Gauteng, where it expects to switch off the analogue signal four years from now.
Political Bureau