Allied Technologies' set-top box business, Altech UEC, is getting ready to begin mass manufacturing of the devices for digital television migration.
This is good news for consumers looking forward to drastically improved quality of video and sound on their TV sets.
During a press update on the business last night, Altech CEO Craig Venter let slip that the process is expected to get off the ground in October. The revelation follows the communication regulator's announcement last month that the digital migration process has been hamstrung by the manufacturing of set-top boxes (STBs).
The Department of Communications (DOC) is governing the manufacturing of the boxes; however, it has yet to provide any clarity on how it plans to get the boxes to market.
The Independent Communications authority of SA (ICASA) says it has “liaised with the department on when the decoders will be available”, and will only make a decision about the final cut-off date for analogue broadcasting when the decoders become available.
Venter said Altech UEC is getting ready to open the manufacturing line, and has also been in discussions with an empowerment partner in preparation for the process.
UEC is one of the larger decoder manufacturers in SA, and will need a BEE partner to meet the department's policy demands. The DOC is trying to set up an entirely new industry to cater for the millions of decoders required for South Africans to watch digital TV.
After the first 60 days to start the roll-out of digital TV, broadcasters then have three years to complete the full migration, and turn off the analogue signal.
If the manufacturing process gets off the ground this year, the soonest the analogue switch-off will happen is 2013, only two years shy of the International Telecommunications Union deadline for global analogue switch-off.
The DOC also wants to make the announcement official as soon as possible, since it hopes to get away with the minimum of investment in the dual-illumination period (the time when analogue and digital broadcasting are run together).
The department will fund a subsidy for South Africans who cannot afford to buy the box retail, and is also providing financial help to broadcasters during the dual-illumination period.
Cabinet has approved R2.45 billion for the subsidisation of the decoders to the poorest households, with the expectation that the final costs of the units would be between R400 and R700.
Telecoms operators will also be pleased that a fixed date has been set, because the shorter the dual-illumination period, the sooner they can get their hands on the spectrum made available by the migration.
Despite the delay, several tasks in the migration process have already been started, with the broadcasters in a test phase with both analogue and digital signals on air.
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