Johannesburg, 06 Jan 2016
The Universal Services and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) has delivered direct-to-home (DTH) and digital terrestrial television (DTT) set-top boxes (STBs) to the people of the Northern Cape.
The STBs were handed to the beneficiaries at the STB roll-out launch that was hosted on 17 December by the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, in Keimoes, Northern Cape.
On 4 August 2014, the Board of USAASA and USAF approved a procurement process of acquiring the services of an independent professional service provider to conduct the tender evaluation on the broadcasting digital migrations (BDM) project.
The process was undertaken in compliance with government procurement regulation, in line with the National Treasury guidelines.
On 21 November 2014, the Agency gazetted four tenders for the manufacturing of the DTH and DTT STBs and antennas. Ernst and Young was subsequently appointed to evaluate the bid to ensure the process was untainted and secure.
On 2 April 2015, suppliers were appointed and had to comply with two main requirements, namely:
1. The STBs had to be manufactured locally; and
2. The STBs had to comply with the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) certification standards.
USAASA then issued another tender for installation services, which was issued on 10 April 2015 and subsequently awarded on 10 September 2015.
Meanwhile, on 4 August, the Agency placed an order of 1.5 million STBs and antennas, and to date, 2 300 have been delivered to the South African Post Office warehouses.
The South African Post Office started with the registration process in the SKA area on 1 October 2015, leading to the recent launch by the minister.
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