Sentech ‘must focus on digital switch’
A BILLION-rand project to upgrade television broadcasts from analogue to digital technology is so crucial that signal distributor Sentech should be relieved of its other duties, industry experts have proposed.
Such a move would end ambitious plans for Sentech to set up a national wireless network to take internet services to consumers, and would axe its involvement in an undersea cable linking SA to Sudan.
The proposals come in a 61 page Draft Broadcasting Digital Migration Strategy drawn up for the communications department. Sentech has previously denied there are any plans to split it up or strip out some of its activities, but the strategy document suggests that would be the sensible option.
The call to drastically reduce Sentech’s mandate has also been fuelled by its cash crunch and its haemorrhaging of quality technicians — which insiders blame on managerial incompetence and an atmosphere of victimisation.
Now that dispirited mood is heightened by uncertainty as Sentech waits for a verdict on its future.
The new proposals seem highly likely to be rejected, however, since they clash with previous strategies emanating from the communications department. Sentech’s mandate is not likely to change, says director- general Lyndall Shope-Mafole.
One direct conflict is with a grand plan by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to have Sentech build a national wireless network to take high speed internet access to businesses and consumers, particularly in rural areas. The network expansion will cost R3bn, yet that project received no cash at all in this year’s budget.
The document also calls for a U-turn on Sentech’s role in the Nepad Network, which will increase Africa’s bandwidth by laying an undersea cable around the east coast. Sentech was granted R21m towards that project in the budget, so the new proposal is a clear conflict of strategy.
Sentech communications manager Pranill Ramchander says the issues raised in the document have not been communicated to Sentech’s board, nor has Sentech received any reply to the comments it submitted to the department on the new proposals.
Sentech is struggling to achieve its goals because of a lack of cash. Chief financial officer Siddique Cassim hopes that crisis will end when it is given permission to raid the government’s R3bn contingency fund. So far its request to draw on that money has not been answered. Nor has the department granted its request to borrow money from the private sector instead of relying on government handouts. “Sentech is still waiting for feedback on that,” Ramchander says.
The strategy document was compiled by a Digital Migration Working Group formed by the department in consultation with the broadcasting industry.
The group believes the task of modernising the television broadcasting infrastructure is so enormous that Sentech should not be distracted by anything else.
Digital migration is a complex technical exercise that must succeed in world record time if SA is to be ready for the World Cup 2010.
“Given the current financial challenges facing Sentech, the importance of the digital television migration for SA, and the need for management focus within Sentech to make digital migration occur … in world record time, structural changes are required to be made to Sentech,” the group says. “Such changes are designed to ensure Sentech can focus its resources more solely on broadcasting.”
The undersea cable and wireless broadband network “need to be allocated to others, or perhaps be made part of a separated entity”.
The working group also doubts that Sentech can handle the digital migration on its own.
A technical partner should be found to help it provide quality digital broadcasting in time for the World Cup and to reduce the financial and operational risks, it says.
Sentech has been granted R318m to digitise the broadcasting infrastructure, far short of the estimated R900m it needs. To fill that gap, other companies could bid to help finance the project, and to supply empowerment credentials and technical and managerial skills to beef up Sentech.
Shope-Mafole says Sentech should not worry about being stripped of its core duties, as these dramatic proposals do not come from the department itself.
“The document reflects different things that have been raised by different stakeholders, but it’s not the department’s view. Sometimes people make proposals that don’t make a lot of sense.”
Sentech will definitely remain a player in the Nepad Network’s submarine cable, she says. It will also remain responsible for providing broadband internet access to the public.
“Cabinet took the decision that Sentech will be a core provider of wireless particularly for government services,” she says. “We have made recommendations to the cabinet based on our experience but that doesn’t stop people making different input that is contradictory.”
The department also believes Sentech can handle the digital broadcasting migration by itself, and that will not change unless Sentech says it needs a partner.
Shope-Mafole also says Sentech can expect additional cash from the contingency fund to expand its wireless network, but negotiations are still under way about the amount.
The deadline for industry stakeholders and the public to comment on the draft document closes today.
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