To date Mauritius is the only African country to complete the switchover from analogue to digital signal, but Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) has announced it is on course to complete the migration.
Every country in Africa is signed up to the United Nations agreement to migrate to digital by June 2015, but so far even the continent’s economic power houses such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have failed to provide evidence they will meet the target.
RURA have said however that the national broadcaster ORINFOR will broadcast in both signals until July, when the phased switching off of analogue will begin, reports East African Business Week.
Francois Gatarayiha, director general at RURA, said: “We have planned for at least three months where we have two signals being broadcasted, at the end of June only then we will start switching off analogue signals, but it is going to be progressive.
The last digital switch off will be in December.
Gatarayiha also encouraged businesses to start importing set-top-boxes which are necessary to convert digital signal for an analogue television set.