A rail track without a train
As part of her department’s strategy, a successful switchover should give nearly 90% of SA households’ access to digital television by 2011. But how realistic is the analogue target, considering the slow pace at which State signal distributor Sentech and national broadcaster SABC are rolling out enabling infrastructure?
Department spokesman Albi Modise says: “The process has not only been consultative but the department also took into consideration the challenges facing Sentech and the SABC. Compared to other countries, our switchover deadline is indeed realistic.”
Though fully supportive of the department’s digital migration policy, Fernando Usera, a senior executive in charge of communications and high technology at IT group Accenture, cautions that the education campaign concerning the migration process has been totally inadequate, especially at the lower end of the market.
He says: “I’m confident that SA will beat its switchover deadline because of the 2010 hype – which has become the rallying cry for many ICT companies in SA. But my worry is that the majority of the lower end of the market could be left high and dry.”
As many as 4,5m households at the lower end of the market could fail to successfully migrate from analogue to digital because they won’t be able to afford enabling digital transmission set boxes.
“Inadequate consumer campaigns could render the exercise futile and costly. Nobody wants to build a costly rail track if there is no train to mount on it,” Usera says.
Finweek
Loading ...