Transition to Digital Broadcasting: Africa’s State of Unreadiness

By Ashnah Kalemera
With three years to the global deadline for shifting from analogue to digital broadcasting as set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), some African nations are falling worryingly behind schedule. Among countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda, there are variations in implementation progress, policy frameworks, service cost and offerings, funding availability, and consumer awareness.
The region’s regulators in April met in Kampala, Uganda to promote cooperation and share experiences so as to make the June 17, 2015 deadline. Organised by ITU, the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) and Uganda’s telecommunications regulator, the ‘Workshop and Frequency Coordination Meeting on the Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television and the Digital Dividend’ was held April 16–20, 2012. Participants were drawn from at least 19 countries, and included government officials, regulators, broadcasters and mobile operators.
Abdoulkarim Soumaila, the ATU secretary general, said digital migration was vital to the enhancement of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Africa because it would allow Africans to access quality radio, television, and broadband services.
Digital migration is the move from analogue to digital broadcasting. It provides for, among others, a variety of high quality audio and visual programmes, interactive services, supports new services such as high definition television, transmission of more content per channel, supports mobile/portable reception and ultimately releases frequency spectrum (“digital dividend”) for other uses, such as broadband provision after full switchover.
The transition requires the development of consumer devices known as set top boxes, and broadcasting and mobile telecommunication standards by key players. The key players are content providers, technical operators, signal distributors, and policy makers and regulators.
Country state of readiness reported at the workshop
Ghana
Ghana has more than 20 licensed terrestrial, satellite, and mobile broadcasters. The current analogue regime is faced with challenges of high industry management costs, poor infrastructure sharing and weak signal reception. Government and a digital broadcasting migration committee are spearheading the country’s strategy for transition to digital broadcasting. Working with other stakeholders, the committee is tasked with policy implementation, planning, budgeting, performance monitoring, and liaising with the public.
The proposed analogue switch off date is December 31, 2014. However, implementation is running four months behind schedule. Low public awareness, for one, could affect the uptake of services and lead to ‘panic’ in the run-up to the switch over deadline. There is also uncertainty about funding for implementation, and consumer incentives for the poor. Furthermore, no legal framework exists for analogue switch off.
Kenya
Migration started with government establishing, in 2007, a taskforce on digital migration hosted by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). Soon after, a multi-stakeholder committee was set up to guide development of a migration plan.
The first broadcast signal distributor, Kenya Broadcasting Cooperation (KBC), was licensed in 2007 and its pilot digital broadcasting signal was launched in December 2009 in the capital Nairobi. KBC is expected to roll out digital services in eight other towns during 2012. A second broadcast signal distributor, Pan African Networks, was licensed in October 2011. It was expected to go on air in Nairobi in May 2012 and 12 other towns by the end of this year.
Consumer awareness campaigns on television and radio commenced in April 2012. With an original transition deadline date of June 2012, CCK anticipates 70% roll out coverage of the current viewing population by the end of 2012. Amongst the challenges faced are financial constraints – “the required funds are in direct competition with other government obligations such as emergency food supplies and the implementation of the new constitution,” said one government official. The lack of tax incentives or subsidies by government has also had an impact on consumer issues of set top box affordability and development of appropriate local content to populate the channels. The setting of a new transition deadline is subject to progress review at the end of this year.
South Africa
The South African Department of Communication gazetted the final Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy Amendment in February 2012. The set top box equipment standards are due to be finalised at the end of May 2012 and the first batch of boxes are to retail by September 2012. Digital services are due to be launched at the end of 2012 through to 2013. However, final analogue switch off – in line with the ITU resolution date – is yet to be announced. The precise date shall be determined in consultation with the cabinet and broadcasting industry.
The structure of South Africa’s proposed implementation plan is the division of the country’s provincial boundaries into “allotment areas” to allow for cost effectiveness and promote efficient and effective citizen uptake. The digital migration Policy Amendments has a provision for the establishment of the Digital Migration Office to project management of the transmission program.
Uganda
Uganda is faced with challenges similar to the other countries – funding, local content, affordability of set top boxes and lack of a regulatory framework. The government is yet to pronounce itself on a clear implementation plan. However, the work of the digital migration steering committee and digital taskforce in conjunction with the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is on-going.
The country has one licensed signal distributor, the Uganda Broadcasting Cooperation (UBC), and four pilot digital broadcasting projects are underway in three districts – Kampala, Jinja and Masaka. The projects are pay TV services with some free-to-air channels by firms not licensed as signal distributors. According to UCC, these investment firms will automatically qualify for signal distribution licensing in the near future.
Workshop recommendations

  • In order to achieve economies of scale and development of an African-wide market for digital television set-top boxes, hence minimum cost for this equipment, consideration be urgently given by African States to the possibility of harmonising the digital TV transmission and definition standard, at sub-regional or regional level.
  • The following timeline be adopted in order to meet the deadline specified by ITU for the cease of analogue transmissions. The dates indicated are the latest possible dates to meet this deadline and it is preferable that they be anticipated, where possible:
  1. December 2012: adoption of a common digital TV standard at sub-regional or regional level in Africa.
  2. June 2013: Finalisation of the establishment of national legislative and regulatory frameworks for the transition to digital TV and the allocation of the digital dividend.
  3. June 2013: End of frequency planning activities (national and international) for the deployment of digital TV and analogue switch off.
  4. September 2013: Start of deployment of digital TV.
  5. June 2014: start of analogue switch off in the UHF band.
  6. 17 June 2015 : end of analog switch off in the UHF band
  • African states make available all necessary human, structural and financial resources to ensure that the above dates are met.
  • Concerning the information to consumers on set-top boxes, it was recommended that member states implement labeling of equipment which are compliant with the standards adopted to ensure that consumers are not mislead into purchasing non-compliant equipment.

Digitalizing Democracy: Initiatives in East Africa

By: Caroline Wamala
A number of organizations in east Africa are using ICT to hold leaders accountable, fight corruption, monitor service delivery, and contribute to building a democratic culture. The East Africa ICT4Democracy Network, supported by Spider, was launched in June 2011 to enable the participating organisations to have stronger impact, build a more sustainable initiative, and further enhance people’s capacity to act and participate in democratic processes.
Participating organisations are:

  • iHub, Kenya
  • Women of Uganda Network,
  • Kenya Human Rights Commission,
  • Transparency International, Uganda
  • Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance
  • Collaboration on International ICT Policy for Eastern and Southern Africa, Uganda

For further information about the projects, visit www.ict4democracy.org.
The core problem is that despite the concerted efforts by international agencies, governments and local donors, ignorance prevails about human and citizen rights among the majority of communities. This perpetuates a culture of poor or bad service delivery across all sectors.
In the developed world generally everyone is aware that water is a human right, health is a human right, in sub-Saharan Africa, or east Africa, people are unaware of these rights, clean water, or access to health is seen as a favour.”

Ashnah – CIPESA at M4D2012 New Delhi

Informing people about their rights to government services is the first step to engaging communities in holding their government accountable to better service delivery.
“So we are not just demanding accountability, we are making communities aware that you are entitled to freedom of expression, entitled to clean water, health etc. so we are engaging them, and they are participating, they are knowledgeable…we are going beyond survellieng and hold someone accountable.

Ashnah – CIPESA  at M4D2012 New Delhi

 Are ICTs the road to democracy?
 While ICT can raise awareness on good governance, spread information on human and citizen rights and help monitor service delivery, it is “merely an amplifier, that acts within the environment it is embedded in. ICT is not the panacea none of our projects think or say that technology is the answer, technology is probably solving 5% of the problem, the other 95% requires us as a people to come together. As long as the cohesion and symbiotic relationships in this network continue these projects will explode into some serious change and become sustainable, we are working together and mobile technology is creating effective change and the same model can be applied in other places, we are building something by learning from each other.

Angela and Hilda – iHub at the M4D2012 Conference in Delhi

 Caroline Wamala is Project officer at Spider and post-doc researcher at Karlstad University.
This article was published by the Swedish Programme on ICTs for Developing regions (SPIDER) on April 18, 2012, about the ICT4Democracy in East Africa project, which brings together various partners in the region – among them CIPESA – Editor

New Report Shows How ICT is Aiding Citizen Participation in Uganda

A new report by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) illustrates how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are aiding citizen participation in Uganda, but also points to the challenges that need to be overcome for these technologies to have a wider impact on governance.
The report reviews various ICT tools being used to promote transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in Uganda. It examines the utility and shortcomings of these tools, the challenges they face, and the factors contributing to their success. Furthermore, it offers suggestions for improving the utility, reach, and, hopefully, the success of initiatives that utilise ICT to improve citizen participation.Based on the 24 ICT tools assessed, seven main categories of uses of tools were identified: Information provision; Election monitoring; Lobbying and activism; Voter registration; Elections reporting; Citizen policing; and Civic participation in the post-election period.Innovations especially with mobile telephony and interactive mapping have showcased how ICT can help improve transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services. In the run up to Uganda’s 2011 general elections, ICT tools were used broadly, for campaigning, tallying results, monitoring the actions of political groups and the electoral body, for civic education, and for activism. The tools included mobile phones, automated calls, and crowd sourcing platforms, radio and television, as well as social media. They contributed to transparency of the polls – but probably not to voter turn-out.However, the most immediate challenge to the adoption of these tools is that few Ugandans are embracing them. In Uganda, market penetration for voice stands at 45% with a population coverage of close to 100%. Mobile accounts for more than 90% of new connections, with 910,000 new subscribers being added each year. While this is providing a solid base in terms of numbers of those who can use the ICT, the figures do not tell the whole story. For example, studies show that nearly half of mobile phone subscribers own at least two SIM cards. Moreover, even among the phone-owning class, for many usage beyond voice (and, well, Facebook and radio) remains limited.And there are yet more challenges. Limitations such as the cost of accessing and using the ICT, language barriers and low literacy levels mainly for the internet and mobile based platforms – as well as minimal attention by government to boosting usage of ICT in governance all hinder the effective use of these tools. This study finds that it is therefore crucial for organisations using ICT for participation and democracy to carry out extensive assessments before deploying the technology, to work with others rather than duplicate efforts, to create awareness and capacity among users, and to continuously assess the impacts the ICT initiatives are creating.This research was made possible by funding from the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider), which is supporting projects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, in the areas of education, health, and governance. The results shall directly inform some wider actions in catalysing civic participation and democracy monitoring using ICT, which CIPESA and other SPIDER partners are undertaking in East Africa. Spider has provided seed-funding to a range of organisations that form the ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network (www.ict4democracy.org), who will benefit from this study.
Download the full report here

Assessing Uganda’s Open Government Data Readiness

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is undertaking a study to establish Uganda’s Open Government Data readiness. The study, which will form the basis of advocacy, awareness raising, and network building activities, is gauging political willingness, public administration readiness, and civil society interest and readiness.
We are also assessing citizens’ perceptions on open governance. Please see http://apc.org/cipesa-opendata-survey for the online survey. For details about the assessment, email programmes@cipesa.org.
 
 

Workshop on Mobile Democracy in East Africa

February 28, 2012, New Delhi, India
The ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network, which brings together various partners in the region – among them CIPESA will hold a stakeholder workshop on mobile phone enabled democracy at the 3rd International Conference on Mobile Communication for Development(M4D2012).
The workshop will showcase innovatice cases from East Africa.
Organisations and inidividuals interested in the role of mobile phones in democracy are invited to attend the workshop.
Further details are available here.