South Africa’s digital terrestrial television (DTT) will be launched on September 26 and 27, the Department of Communications (DoC) has revealed.
Addressing to the Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises in Parliament, DoC said the launch of phase one will be benchmark that DDT works and that it’s frequencies can’t hinder the SKA project.
The launch of the first phase of the digital terrestrial television, according to Roy Kruger, Technical Adviser to the DoC will roll out in the Northern Cape, adjacent to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
Kruger told MyBroadband that the project will show rural populations the possibility of the having TV in the near future.
Apart from the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite decoders launched around the SKA, DTT transmissions are to be demonstrated around Kimberley.
DTT or digital switchover will see all analog television broadcasting taken over by digital television from analogue terrestrial television to digital terrestrial.
ITU requires its member countries to shift to digital terrestrial before the June 2015 deadline and the country is increasing its spending to ensure the move is possible before the deadline.
Kenya has began working in its move to digital and had earlier set the deadline for June 2012, as the price of set top boxes was reportedly high and the public had inadequate information on what digital migration meant for them. The country therefore had to push the deadline further to December.
