24 Feb 2016

The Ministry for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration is working closely with stakeholders to facilitate the process of availing Set Top Boxes (STB’s) in the local retail market.

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele said the targeted date of the first availability of the top boxes was June this year.

He said the choice of the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard was informed by the evidence of economic and social benefits that it offered to Botswana.

“This was based on the outcome of a comparative assessment and evaluation of technical and performance capabilities of the ISDB-T and the Digital Video Broadcasting 2nd Generation (DVB-T2),” said Mr Makgalemele. He added that on the economic front, there were cost savings and transmission efficiency.

Mr Makgalemele said the ISDB-T technology allowed three modes of transmission being fixed, mobile and portable or handled from one transmitter compared to more than one transmitter required for the same functionality with other service providers.

On social benefits, Mr Makgalemele said the data casting application on ISDB-T enabled advanced emergency warning services.

He said the two were the leading technical standards that were approved for the SADC region by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and that from the options Botswana adopted the ISDB-T for digital migration.

The MP for Chobe, Mr Ronald Shamukuni wanted the minister to update Parliament on Botswana’s choice of standard for digital migration and what informed the choice of standard and how the decision was arrived at. He also wanted to know whether the STB’s for this standard were available in the market. Ends