African countries set to beat digital migration deadline

Kenya: A three days Digital Migration and Spectrum Policy Summit of African states ended Wednesday where delegates made and adopted various recommendations on maximising the digital dividends.

The 29 delegates from Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Equatorial, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Chad, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya re-affirmed commitment of African countries to the completion of Digital Migration by the 17 June 2015 deadline.

Among the recommendations was to have digital spectrum managed in a way that it encourages a dynamic access.

Countries that may face timing challenges were encouraged to prioritise Analogue Switch-Off (ASO) of transmitters that are along the borders to avoid interfering with the neighbouring countries.

African Administrations were urged to adopt DVB-T2 with MPEG-4 compression and the dual HDTV/SD format for the set-top boxes.

The summit noted that the majority of African countries are committed to implementing the recommended DVB-T2/MPEG-4 standard for DTT.

ITU indicated that it has a positive intention to continue working directly with the six Sub-Sahara African countries that did not yet submit their proposed modifications to the GE06 Plan.

The countries were not named but were encouraged to join the rest of Africa in beating the June 2015 deadline. An emphasis was made that the VHF frequencies will be switched by 2017.

However, the Summit failed to agree on the recommendation to put in place a mechanism for coordination among broadcasters in the region in order to facilitate consultation and harmonisation to ensure that broadcasters’ interests in general are articulated.

 “The time is now to migrate as the world moves to digital platform. We cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand,” Tiampati said. He used US president Obama’s campaign slogan ‘yes we can!’ in building hope that indeed the analogue-digital migration is a reality.

Funding was raised as a challenge among many African countries present. Government funding remains the primary mode of funding.

The summit suggested that countries consider among others public private partnerships (PPPs). 

The use of universal access funds as well as use of proceeds from the anticipated Digital Dividend spectrum licensing was also recommended as alternative funding.

Communication commission of Kenya (CCK) director Francis Wangusi was pleased with the harmonizing 700-800 MHz in Africa, since Africa will benefit from economies of large scale.

As the World Radio communication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) approaches the Summit urged African countries make efforts to attend technical preparatory meetings.