SA to only switch off analogue broadcasting in 2020, says minister
Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane says it will switch to digital earlier if it’s possible
SA will only switch off analogue broadcasting signals in July 2020 — a full five years after an international deadline to do so, communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane said on Friday. The country’s painfully slow migration from analogue to digital broadcasting has meant telecommunications companies have had limited access to spectrum, or radio frequencies, which are sorely needed to roll out services and reduce costs. On Thursday, Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said data prices could more than halve if the government finally got around to allocating additional spectrum to network operators. But he said that while the government was planning to auction off spectrum in early 2019, those frequencies would only be available once SA’s digital migration was complete. “Based on the activities plan and the resources we have, analogue switch-off will occur in SA in July 2020,” Mokonyane said. “However, we will work harder to do it earlier if it’s possible.” The Free State would be first to be...
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