MTBPS2022: With the auction for high-demand spectrum completed, the next stage is to conclude the digital migration process to release the spectrum in those frequency bands.
So said finance minister Enoch Godongwana, delivering the 2022 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) to the National Assembly at Cape Town’s City Hall this afternoon.
“The minister of communications and digital technologies will shortly indicate a new date for analogue switch-off,” he notes.
According to the sector performance and outlook of the MTBPS, the transport, storage and communication sector grew by 7.6% in the first six months of 2022, compared with the same period in 2021.
However, delays in digital migration are offsetting the forward momentum of the auction of broadband spectrum that should create significant positive gains for the communications sector, says the policy statement.
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.
However, litigation and numerous other challenges saw the process being delayed for more than a decade. The latest blow to the digital migration process was the Constitutional Court’s decision that halted the 30 June analogue switch-off date.
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 “historic” spectrum auction in March.
Access to high‐demand spectrum will help mobile operators provide faster and more widespread high-speed data services. On the consumer front, it would mean making affordable data available to firms and households.
For government, the allocation of spectrum has been key to its economic reforms, with the national fiscus benefitting in excess of R14 billion from the proceeds of the auction.
To ensure the country migrates from analogue to digital TV, the DCDT has intensified efforts to inform the public about digital migration, following the ConCourt decision.
The department’s digital migration public awareness campaign encourages community members to register for government-subsidised set-top boxes (STBs) and installation.
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.
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