Challenges in
procurement are responsible for Rwanda's missing of the December 31, 2012
deadline to migrate from analogue to digital in TV broadcasting, set by the
East African Community (EAC), officials have said.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) set 2015 as the global deadline for switching from analogue to digital broadcasting, which uses rare frequency resource efficiency while allowing the introduction of additional services such as high definition television and pay TV on standard TV.
The national broadcaster, ORINFOR, had committed to start broadcasting digital content in March 2012, well ahead of the EAC deadline. Among the five EAC partner states, only Tanzania managed to beat the deadline. Last year, Rwanda opened the first tender for the supply of Set Top Boxes (STBs)-decoding devices that will convert analogue images to digital and allow TV set owners to watch digital content without necessarily buying new sets.
While speaking to The New Times, the head of Communication and Media Regulation at Rwanda Utility Regulation Authority (RURA), Jean Baptiste Mutabazi, also attributed the failure to beat the deadline to the unavailability of the decoders.
"We have already published the technical specifications of the decoders but what remains is to get investors who can import them," said Mutabazi. The exact specifications of the required device were published in the last quarter of 2012.
The NewTimes Rwanda