By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has set the final date for analogue switch-off – now expected to take place on 31 December 2024.
The department initially set the switch-off date for 31 March 2023 in December last year – but as has been the case for more than a decade, this deadline was missed.
In a new gazette published on Thursday (15 June), the department has now pegged 31 July 2023 for all analogue broadcasting services operating on frequencies above 694 MHz to switch off.
All remaining services operating below this frequency will be temporarily accommodated, it said. The full switch-off will be on 31 December 2023 – 13 years after the original deadline.
The switching off of analogue broadcasts and switching to digital is one of the measures President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed as a transformative step for the country’s economy.
In his latest letter to the public, the president said the switch-off date is vital for industries operating in the space – particularly mobile networks – to unlock better value and provide better services to citizens and businesses.
However, the road to switching off has been long and filled with potholes.
South Africa has missed a long series of deadlines for the digital migration project, which had originally been earmarked for completion in December 2010. It also reneged on a commitment to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, to complete the project by mid-2015.
Government’s new, two-pronged analogue switch-off plan reads remarkably like a proposal that free-to-air broadcaster e.tv devised in 2021 to resolve the impasse over freeing up frequencies above 694MHz for broadband.
Meanwhile, communication networks and broadcast services have deteriorated during this time, as both operators and broadcasters have been edging into each others’ spectrum to provide services.
Over the soon-to-be 13-year process, the department in charge has changed hands several times, with eight ministers overseeing the process.