Citizens warned against bogus DTT training centres

"I call on people to refrain from attending courses offered by these institutions. These centres are operating illegally and have no accreditation.

"As the department, we are yet to make an official announcement on which centres will be accredited to offer such courses," said Minister Muthambi on Tuesday.

This after the Department of Communications (DoC) said it has in the last few weeks been inundated with calls from people wanting to verify the legality of these institutions.

The DoC said it is working closely with the Department of Labour (DoL) to design an accredited course for DTT installers.

"Once the course content is finalised, the DoC will communicate through various community and mainstream media about where interested individuals can go to undertake such training.

"While the process of migrating from analogue to digital television presents an economic opportunity for South Africans, people must be vigilant and avoid being robbed of their hard-earned money," said the department.

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.