SA, Mozambique sign DTT agreement

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Signing the agreement with her counterpart, Transport and Communications Minister Carlos Fortes Mesquite, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi said the agreement would benefit citizens of the two neighbouring countries.

"All of us should be proud about this bilateral agreement in that it is for the benefits of all our people. We've discussed issues pertaining to the potential frequency spectrum interference as a result of the digital migration programme implementation and of course the main objective was to identify issues of mutual interest on cross border interference in order to establish an amicable solution of addressing challenges as and when they arise," she said.

Speaking after signing the agreement, Minister Fortes Mesquite said: "As a country, we have been ready for digital migration, but however, because we want to move together with the SADC region, we had to wait for some of our neighbouring countries to get ready for this digital migration process in order to avoid potential radio frequency interference.

"We are very grateful to have signed this agreement with South Africa as we believe that this will benefit us in terms of sharing of technical knowledge. We are doing all these because we know that digital migration will bring more opportunities for our people," he said.

After next Wednesday, all countries who missed the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) deadline to switch off analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting system will no longer be protected against signal interference.

South Africa is embarking on the process of signing and concluding agreements' with the Southern African neighbours who will not be able to meet next week's digital migration process deadline (June 17, 2015).

Mozambique is the fourth country to sign the agreement of cooperation in mitigating cross border radio frequency spectrum interference. Neighbouring countries that have already signed the agreement are Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

South Africa's Head of Digital Migration Programme, Solly Mokoetle, said their discussions also focused on sharing of migration plans, processes to handle frequency spectrum interference and the release of digital dividend's timing.

He said South Africa's national digital network coverage comprises Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) transmission coverage of 84% of the population with the remaining 16% to be covered by Satellite network.

"The process of rolling out of Set-Top Boxes (STB) is aimed at a period of between 18-24 months once the Minister announces dual-illumination period after consulting the Cabinet based on the potential timelines of the availability of (STBs)."

Director-General for the Mozambique Communication Regulator, Professor Americo Muchanga, speaking through a translator, said their country's analogue transmission covers 70% of the population, adding that the DTT will commence in the coming weeks with the intention to complete major cities (10) and borderline areas (8) by December this year.

"Different STB distribution plans are being considered awaiting Cabinet decision and dual-illumination will continue for a minimum of two years," he said.

Minister Muthambi is expected to sign similar bilateral agreements with both Namibia and Zimbabwe in the next few weeks.

Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)

DTT is a reliable and much cost efficient means to distribute linear television content and has many advantages over the old, analogue broadcasting that is still in use today.

Digital migration refers to the switch from an analogue broadcasting system to a digital broadcasting system and this has been a world-wide move which is being driven by the ITU.

In order to view digital television signals on an ordinary analogue television set, consumers will need a so-called Set-Top-Box. The purpose of the Set-Top-Box is to convert the DTT signal for reception on an ordinary analogue television set.

If consumers haven't acquired a set top box by analogue switch-off, they will no longer be able to view the existing terrestrial television broadcasting services

The department anticipates the rollout of Set-Top-Boxes to be completed in the coming 18-24 months so that South Africans can switch off analogue signal and begin to realise the benefits of digital dividend to allow for the rollout of Wireless Broadband Services.