In what could prove to be a highly significant development for mobile operators, a number of South Africa’s broadcasters have agreed to the newest deadline to vacate the so-called ‘digital dividend’ bands.
Communications minister Mondli Gungubele has said that the date to complete the migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television is now 31 December 2024. Two previous deadlines were not met by his predecessor, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.
As the TechCentral website points out, this time the minister has the backing of a number of broadcasters.
Gungubele published a notice in the Government Gazette this week saying all analogue broadcasters using bands above 694MHz must vacate those frequencies by no later than 31 July.
This is important for mobile operators which, in theory, were given access to those frequency bands during last year’s spectrum auctions but still can’t make full use of the spectrum.
Those broadcasters occupying the bands above 694MHz must move to lower frequencies at the end of July. All remaining analogue broadcasting services should temporarily be accommodated in lower frequencies, which seems to be acceptable to big broadcasters SABC and e.tv. Digital broadcasting services operating above 694MHz must go to frequencies below 694MHz to free up the 694-862Mhz frequency bands.
All analogue signals are to be switched off no later than 31 December 2024, by which time, it is hoped, the millions of households now relying on analogue broadcasts will have converted to digital services.
As we mentioned in February 2021, like a number of countries in Africa, South Africa missed the original deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union for completion of the switchover process, which was meant to happen in June 2015.
