The switch-over from analogue to a digital broadcasting system is unlikely to be completed by November 2011, due to the slow process of drafting set-top box (STB) specifications, frequency plans and regulations.
SA is currently in its three-year window of switching from the obsolete analogue broadcasting system to a new digital format that will allow a greater number of channels and more efficient use of spectrum. It began in November last year and is to end with the switch-off of the analogue system in November 2011.
Former communication minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and former Department of Communications (DOC) director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole were the prime movers in the ambitious targets being set. The International Telecommunications Union had decreed that SA should switch over by 2015 as part of the global frequency plan.
However, the timeline appears to be slipping rapidly and now it seems that the country would have to make use of the ITU set date.
The working group that sets the STB specification at the SA Bureau of Standards is still collating public comments, the communications regulator ICASA has still to finalise its broadcast frequency plan and finalise the digital TV regulations.
Lara Kantor, the SA Broadcasting Corporation's general manager for digital TV policy, says the broadcaster has applied for an extension of its test license from ICASA because of the delays in introducing a commercial service.
“We originally wanted to complete testing in June. However, because we do not have the frequency plan or the regulations yet, it means the commercial service will only be starting, at best, in 2010 rather than in the last quarter of this year,” she says.
The SABC and private broadcaster etv have been conducting the free-to-air tests among consumers in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban. More than 2 000 STBs are being used in the test.
Pay TV broadcaster MNet is conducting a similar test. MNet regulatory director Karen Willenberg says it has not applied for an extension of its test licence yet and is waiting to see the regulations finalised before making up its mind.
“The implementation dates are slipping,” she says.
Willenberg points out that the only countries that have been able to switch over in such a short period have been small Scandinavian countries.
Linden Petzer, chairman of the SABS's working group that is drawing up the specifications, says they should be finalised by the end of June.
“Because it is a public participatory process it does take some time,” he says.
The specifications that are being drawn up are for the minimum standards, meaning that manufacturers can go above them. The specifications will also be voluntary as they will not be tied into any specific legislation and gazetted as such.
The minimum standards will not include keyboard or hard drive connectivity as these will increase the cost of manufacture, Petzer says.
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