The recent flash floods in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and northern part of the Eastern Cape won’t affect the 30 June deadline for SA’s migration from analogue to digital TV.
Communications and digital technologies minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni stated this during last week’s visit to KZN, to assess the damage caused by the deadly floods in the province.
Including Gauteng and Cape Town, KZN and the Eastern Cape are among the four big provinces where government still needs to complete set-top box (STB) installations for qualifying households.
Government has undertaken to assist indigent households that applied for STBs, which are required to convert digital broadcasting signals on analogue TV sets. Qualifying households − those with an income of R3 500 per month or less – are required to register for these devices at their nearest SA Post Office branch.
Responding to what impact the floods will have on the revised digital migration deadline, Ntshavheni said the floods in KZN and Eastern Cape “will not affect the analogue cut-off date”.
She states: “We have done the assessments and the numbers of those that were affected were not too big.”
For those households where STBs have not yet been installed, Ntshavheni explained that if they have been displaced, the decoders can’t be installed and connected until such time they receive housing.
“As they [households] are resettled, we’ll make sure the connection goes into those houses. We are going to give a full integrated package…we are working with the department and the minister of human settlements to make sure that before a person gets a key – if that person had applied for a set-top box and they qualify – we’ll install a set-top box in that house.”
After missing the International Telecommunication Union-mandated June 2015 migration deadline, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) has made numerous attempts to conclude the country’s digital migration process.
The switch to digital is important because it will make available the sub-1GB (700MHz-800MHz) radio frequency bands occupied by the analogue TV signals.
These are the spectrum bands licensed during telecoms regulator the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s (ICASA’s) historic spectrum auction in March. ICASA has determined and announced 1 July 2022 as the end of transition period for the broadcasting services and signal distributors to vacate the 700MHz-800MHz bands.
According to the minister, if the floods affect the 30 June cut-off date, then it will exacerbate the communication problems in the country.
“We need that spectrum to make sure we can communicate and South Africa can be connected quicker, and it will help us resolve the problems that are there.”
The DCDT is charged with overseeing implementation of the country’s crucial digital migration programme. It planned to shut down the country’s analogue TV signals, which would mark the end of dual-illumination in SA, on 31 March.
However, the decision was legally challenged by Etv, which argued that the move to switch-off analogue TV signals will kill the businesses of free-to-air broadcasters.
The Pretoria High Court ordered a postponement of analogue switch-off by only three months, to 30 June, ruling against most of Etv’s applications. The decision was welcomed by the minister, saying it will give government sufficient time to complete STB installations for households.
Etv has since approached the Constitutional Court on an urgent basis to appeal the High Court ruling.
Contingency plans
According to Ntshavheni, the DCDT did a digital migration assessment to determine the impact in terms of the houses that were washed away.
“We are engaging with the Department of Human Settlements to make sure the beneficiaries who had not yet had their installations done – if their houses had been affected – we reconnect them as they get resettled.”
Furthermore, the department is doing an assessment of those households that had STBs previously installed, and are going to install as soon as it’s possible to do so.
“We are quantifying the number not only for KZN but also for Eastern Cape, so that we can check the impact. As the human settlement department restores and resettles, we are going to be matching them and move with them in tandem. There are discussions we are having with colleagues on that.”
As to connectivity of government institutions, Ntshavheni said in KZN there haven’t been disruptions outside of schools, some clinics and police stations, adding that SITA and Broadband Infraco are going to work to restore those institutions.
However, in the northern part of the Eastern Cape, government institutions have been disconnected for the past few days, she said.
“We are working to bring in satellite technology that is offered by Sentech to immediately get them back online so there can be business continuity, and the efforts will be detailed later in the week, but we are hoping to urgently restore connectivity in the Eastern Cape.”
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