Time is of the essence for digital TV migration and industry is waiting for the Department of Communications (DOC) to issue the set-top-box specifications, said trade and industry director-general Tshediso Matona.
Matona was answering questions during a parliamentary media briefing yesterday, along with trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa.
At a similar briefing on Monday, communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri seemed unsure when her department would issue its plan for the country's migration from analogue to digital TV broadcasting signals.
"We have examined what other countries have done and we should be taking our recommendations to Cabinet within the next few months, or even this month, with a plan to help the poor buy set-top boxes," she said.
According to what the DOC has released so far, and repeated by President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation address, about 50% of the population should be covered by the digital broadcast signal at the start of the three-year dual illumination period, starting in November.
However, no details have yet emerged for plans to manufacture the set-top boxes that will convert the digital signals for display on a standard analogue TV, at what price these boxes will be sold, and how government hopes to subsidise the purchase of the boxes by the poor.
"We met with the electronics industry last week and they are obviously very keen to participate in this. However, they need the DOC to issue the specifications. With 2010 [World Soccer Cup], speed [for the issuing of the specifications] is of the essence," Matona said.
ICT charter
Mpahlwa and Matona also emphasised that industry sector charters, such as the ICT charter, were still important, even though the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had published its codes for good practice regarding black economic empowerment.
"Such charters are important as they are an expression of consensus of what's possible," Matona said. "But those charters have to be approved by the DTI and gazetted to become proper codes."
However, Mpahlwa said, the ICT charter had not been received by the DTI for the 9 February deadline, and a new deadline has been set for August.
During the briefing, the minister said six new investments by international players had been secured for the government assistance support programme for business process outsourcing and that funding for the piloting of the Monyetla BPO skills programme had been secured.
Mpahlwa also stated that contact centres, one for tracking the approval progress of large private sector investments of more than R100 million, and the other to support SMEs, were on track for commissioning.
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