R500m satellite project ready to go
National signal distributor Sentech is going ahead with plans to expand its satellite network after it was criticised by Parliament for wasting R500 million on a wireless project.
Sentech is investing R300m of the funds in satellite infrastructure in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. The company says it will launch its first Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service in November this year, where existing analogue television will migrate to a digital format.
Hulisanni Rasivhaga, Sentech spokesperson, said yesterday: “The progress is going fine and we’ll roll it out in November.”
The new satellite facilities will be used primarily for the 2010 World Cup games. Around R25m will be used to build satellite infrastructure, while R110m will go towards satellite related equipment at the 10 World Cup stadiums. The overall satellite project is due to be completed in time for the event.
The remaining R85m will be spent on linking equipment between the stadiums and an international broadcast centre (IBC), which will transmit the games to the rest of the world.
Sentech was blasted in Parliament last month for wasting funds for its R500m MyWireless project. While the company was the first to enter the WiMax market, it only reached a peak of 8000 retail customers, a number that has since slumped to 2000.
Latecomer iBurst, in contrast, currently has over 60000 Wi- Max customers despite its limited government allocation of wireless bandwidth.
The failure of the MyWireless project led to the company taking the project out of the public domain and providing wireless services exclusively to government organisations.
Sentech also came under fire for the huge staff exodus from mid-2007 to February this year. Over 100 people left the company over that period, but it has replaced them with 101 new appointments.
“In the event that we need any additional skills we’ll source them. The project is going forward,” Rasivhaga said.
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