16 Feb 2014

 The Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri has told Parliament that digital migration was a process and its plan was in place.

He said the country should be able to meet the set deadline on June 17, 2015 and that the choice for ISDB-T was made after extensive research and comparative test on DVB-T2 and ISDB-T by the government and non-government engineers with assistance of reputable institutions.

Mr Matlhabaphiri said the matter of economies of scale was not an issue because the receiving equipment (set top boxes and integrated receivers (TV sets) was no longer customised like the past where equipment was manufactured for specific area, country or region.

He said the transmitter that was used for the comparative tests was designed in Europe and was not customised for Botswana or any other country. Mr Matlhabaphiri said the only difference was how the software was configured in the equipment adding that the equipment can be easily configured from the front panel analogue DVB-T2 and ISDB-T.

He said the STBs can also switch between 6 MHz, 7 MHz and 8 MHz and this allows for most of the equipment in the market to be operated in different standards. The assistant minister noted that the digital terrestrial broadcasting would require use of set top boxes (decoders) and in some cases new antennas, with the existing analogue television sets to access digital television services.

He said this means that the public would have to purchase Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting –Terrestrial (ISDB-T) set top boxes and antennas. Mr Matlhabaphiri said it does not matter which system one has adopted, be it DVB-T2 or ISDB-T or any other DTT standard as the receiving equipment (set top boxes) would meet the general specifications as set by SADC, but only the operating software would allow for operation in ISDB-T mode.

Parliament heard that the hardware and power supplies would be the same as those of DVB-T2 or better and that the ISDB-T technology does not consume more power.At the moment, he said, Botswana was the only country in the region which has adopted ISDB-T.

The assistant minister was responding to questions from the Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Mr Dumelang Saleshando who had asked the minister to state progress on the Botswana Digital Migration Processes and to state reasons for the choice of technology and whether it was in line with the recommendations of government engineers.

MP Saleshando further asked whether Botswana considered the benefits of choosing a technology preferred by most countries in the region so as to benefit from possible ‘economies of scale’ and what benefits would be derived by choosing a system not aligned to the rest of the region.

He also wanted to know if it was true that the preferred technology consumes more power and would come with a higher cost to the consumer as compared to DVB-T2 and which countries in the region have chosen the same technology solution as Botswana. Ends