South Africa joins Mauritius in switch to digital TV

South Africa has officially switched to digital television, joining Mauritius in the migration process.

During the closing ceremony of the International Telecommunication Union ICT standards meeting, The Department of Communications (DOC) announced that trials would take place from Nov. 1 to mid 2009.

"South Africa will take its rightful place in the ICT sector by joining countries such as the U.K., New Zealand, U.S., France and Mauritius that are advanced in their migration process," read a statement from the DOC.

The switch to digital will allow for more channels -- up to eight new video channels, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation -- to be broadcast in the same bandwidth as one analogue channel currently uses.

Migration from analogue to digital terrestrial TV will release valuable spectrum that can be utilized for other services, the DOC projected.

The process to migrate the entire country to digital will be completed by 2011, almost four years before the global completion deadline, stated the DOC. Until then, the industry will broadcast both analog and digital signals, meaning that consumers who have not yet acquired the equipment needed to watch digital TV will still have access to channels.

According to the DOC, the set-top boxes necessary for watching digital TV have been developed locally, in line with the department's strategy to grow local industry and increase the participation of black people in transforming the local ICT industry.

The South African Cabinet made the decision to switch to digital broadcasting in February 2007. Sentech, a parastatal dealing mainly in ICT infrastructure, is responsible for the migration.