Ghana is inching closely to the final phases of its Digital Migration and barring any hitches, sale and distribution of approved Digital Terrestrial Television (DDT) Receivers such as Set Top Boxes (STBs) and Decoders will be rolled out in the early part of this year.
This follows the commencement of work on the local production of STBs in Ghana. The country is spending a total of a substantial amount to move the telecommunications platform from Analogue to Digital system which will see massive enhancement in radio, television and other telecommunication services. Government announced this year that it concluded Phase 1 of the multi-million-dollar Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network project had already been completed in April 2016 and it included a central point located at Kanda where all digital television stations would connect their programme.
Already, several local and international firms have positioned themselves to take up the huge economic, technical and business challenge offered by the project. One of such firms is device manufacturer, Rlg Communications Group. The company has been producing gadgets such as mobile phones, computers, blue tooth and others since 2006. The company will be producing STBs for Ghana for the first time but the second time in the sub-region where it possesses its track record in Set Top Box manufacturing.
In Nigeria, RLG successfully executed a contract which saw the production and supply 150, 000,000 digital set-up boxes, otherwise known as STBs for the pilot phase of the migration which was being executed by the Television Enterprises Limited, a subsidiary of the National Television Authority (NTA). It was subsequently contracted by other private entities to manufacture same products. The boxes were carefully designed and robust enough to withstand tropical conditions and were built with state-of-the-art technology. That contract created jobs for many young Nigerians who underwent training in assembling, servicing, sales and installations among others.
From the first quarter of 2017, RLG will be expected to produce for the Ministry of Communications 600,000 STBs spread over a monthly basis for the next one year. The boxes will bear Conformance DTT standard logo affixed on it. The contract’s execution is expected to be done within the broader framework of the new government’s policy of job creation and will therefore be geared towards the creation of jobs for some 5,000 people directly, mainly youth with technological and business skills aside another 5,000 auxiliary jobs. The company sources say aside the MOC consignment, it is considering producing some of the product for the commercial market and that may require the opening of production outlets in some districts and regions in the context of the new government's factory per district policy.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) gave member countries around the world up to 2016 to complete digital migration and already many nations have met the deadline. The United State of America completed digital migration in 2009 and most countries in Europe completed by 2012 while a few Africa countries including Rwanda and Tanzania have also migrated.
Analogue broadcasting occurs when the signal is in the form of a continuous wave, where digital is in the form discrete bits of information. In addition, the digital signal is encoded and can be compressed to allow for more channels to be broadcast. It improves programming and enhance efficiency within the digital framework.
A successful digital migration will ensure that broadcasting services are protected from interference from neighbouring countries; provide improved services and to bring great benefits of digital broadcasting to Ghanaian television viewers and broadcasters. Also, Ghana’s migration would lead to the release of some valuable spectrum currently used for analogue television broadcasting for the provision of mobile broadband services.
It is therefore not surprising that even before the contract takes off, some persons who can only be described as disappointed bidders have begun to smear it with bad things. Having gone through “hell” already, it will be surprising that RLG will engage in any illegality. They deserve the chance to prove themselves right or wrong. It is early yet.
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