South Africa will need to wait a few more years before the much-coveted analogue broadcasting spectrum is released, as the country grapples to complete its now urgent transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

While signal distributor Sentech has identified the first regions to switch off the analogue frequencies when South Africa’s digital terrestrial television (DTT) project is completed, the date to start the phased analogue switch-off (ASO) programme could not yet be set despite the looming June 17 International Telecommunications Union (ITU) deadline.

Sentech head of network engineering Tebogo Leshope on Wednesday said a “pragmatic approach” to the DTT completion and the release of the spectrum was needed as the country first needed to complete a dual illumination period – where both analogue and digital frequencies were broadcast simultaneously – and ensure the sufficient distribution of the set-top boxes (STBs) required to convert the digital frequency.

The analogue broadcasting signal could not be switched off  – nor could the country progress its current network dual illumination into an operational dual illumination – until the majority of television-owning households had a STB, which would hinge on distribution and availability.

Following this, it could take up to three years for the nationwide phased ASO, as border regions were prioritised and the relevant spectrum policies and regulation finalised, he told delegates at the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association-hosted Digital Broadcasting Now conference, in Randburg, on Wednesday.

“We are working with stakeholders to see how we can compress this [timeline], but we need to take a pragmatic approach,” he said.

Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) DTT project head Simon Kekana added that the rate at which the digital dividend would be released depended on the needs of the country, sufficient regulatory frameworks and collaboration.

The digital dividend contained within the analogue broadcasting frequencies would enable mobile operators to do more with less spectrum – and at significantly lower costs – as the lower frequencies currently allocated to analogue broadcasting enabled wider coverage and in-building coverage, compared with the spectrum currently available to mobile operators.

Leshope outlined Sentech’s ASO programme that would see the Northern Cape become the first South African province to switch off its analogue signal.

The next phase would see the analogue signals of the other border regions and Limpopo switched off. The programme would end with KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Gauteng.

After the June 17 deadline, the ITU would lift its protection of South Africa’s analogue frequencies, meaning that the country would no longer be protected against disruptions of the radio waves that were used for analogue television broadcasts.

The border regions were prioritised as they would be most vulnerable to broadcasting disruption from neighbouring countries, which were also undertaking the transition to digital broadcasting, while the inland signal disruptions could be mitigated, Leshope pointed out.

Kekana noted that, currently, five SADC member States were broadcasting digitally, including Mauritius, Namibia and Malawi, while Madagascar and the Seychelles were undergoing trials.

Another seven were in the final stages of installation and procurement.

None of the SADC members had met the initial self-imposed dual illumination deadline of the end of 2013.