{{Following the switch from Analogue to Digital Television, the journey has been slow with mixed reactions about the whole process especially East African member states.
However, for Rwanda, the transition process seems to be smoothly taking effect.
IGIHE had an exclusive interview with Mr. Nkurunziza Innocent the technical Director of Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) during which several issues were discussed.
Below is an excerpt of the full interview;}}
{{Mr. Nkurunziza Innocent (L) the Technical Director of Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) speaking to a Journalist}}
{{IGIHE: The digital migration process has been on for three months with the recent analogue switch off, what’s the current situation?}}
{{Mr. Nkurunziza :}} The calendar has been respected and up to now five transmitters have been switched off starting from Kigali we switched off transmitters located at Jali, Rebero on the January 31st and then other 3 sites at Mugogo, Rubona and Gitwe were switched off on the March 31st. The plan is really respected.
There have been complaints about shortage of decoders in the market
{{Nkurunziza}}: As you know we started since 2006 with the digital platform. But it was very hard to convince people to buy set boxes it was a new technology and people couldn’t understand, the market was full of analogue TV sets, so people were hesitant to going digital.
However, some of them, like the government, understood what it the importance of going digital and its benefits.
In 2009 the government took the decision after the ITU recommendation that from 2015 that all analogue would not be protected, then government decided to go digital before the deadline.
In 2009 there was a project to cover the entire country, that project was to come and resolve all issues related to TV coverage because people couldn’t access Rwanda television countrywide, then the government decided to go straight to digital instead of investing in improving analogue coverage.
Since 2010 we had the network running and there was a discussion about how we can bring in STBs, initially it was very had to convince the private sector to invest in that area, they couldn’t understand what is it, it took time, so many meetings, awareness campaigns to show the benefits of having the digital television.
Also RBA bought some digital decoders that were sold countrywide at sector level. Once the people were seeing good pictures, more channels on one TV set they were interested and some local investors got involved and bought some decoders and currently there are four of them.
There is Star Times who has been selling decoders; there is alsoTransafrica and tele10, etc. Currently there is no problem with the STBs coming in the country.
There have also been complaints that despite having acquired decoders, some people can still not access the picture and quality clarity promised before the process?
{{Nkurunziza}}: What do you mean? I don’t understand? What’s quality? You know the digital environment it is 0 or 1, you have the signal or you don’t. I agree with you, with the area where there is shadow of the transmitter they can’t see anything they have 0 signal, they can’t have the signal but those areas are not so many, I don’t know where the complaint comes from, Is it Kigali or somewhere around Kigali.
{{How do you intend to resolve the problem in areas that receive no Signals?}}
{{Nkurunziza: }} yes, some deep areas where they have a shadow, they are squeezed in the mountains. Those areas we are planning to install what we call gap fillers, it is just a small transmitter which doesn’t require to cover a very big area, gap fillers cover just a very targeted area, it can cover for instance a sector or cell area.
We are going to solve those problems, it is just a small investment and we are going to handle those areas. I can give you some examples, in Gakenke district there is a commercial center which doesn’t have the coverage, we are targeting the cover it with a gap filler.
There is another area in Nyagatare district, Kirehe district and Rusizi district, I know like 5 areas where they will not get anything with this network we have currently. Normally this network coves 95%, those area are part of 5% so we have a plan by next year we will fix those areas, the budget I hope is there.
{{From your on-going monitoring and evaluation, what has been the emerging trend during the process?}}
{{Nkurunziza}}: First of all is the awareness campaign, people they are still hesitating to move, they are resisting, they don’t need to invest more money to buy the STBs, there are some people who would like to stay with the analogue TV set.
For Example If I bought an analogue TV set in December and in January you tell me I have to buy a set top box to watch TV because the analogue is going to be switched off.
That is the major challenge, to tell people to buy STBs. Another challenge is, what are we going to do with the switched off transmitters?
We have infrastructure which now was switched off and we are planning to see what we can do with those transmitters, whether are we going to find a market where we can sell those transmitters, are going to work with the environmental department so that we can see how to manage these E waste.
Another problem is the awareness campaign, to bring people on the table so that they can really understand the benefit of digital migration; we are fighting to reach the deadline once everyone is happy, with the deadline of June 2015 set by ITU.
For instance if people continue to resist, it is a problem for the government , the people will not get informed so we are going to see may be through the regulator, how we can subsidize the awareness campaign so that people can be involved in really understanding STBs. Those are the major challenges we are currently facing.
{{How much progress has been made in putting up infrastructure for the digital platform?}}
{{Nkurunziza}}: Since 2009 we have already set infrastructure countrywide, we have 14 digital sites countrywide covering 95%, because we started before the second generation of the digital platform what is going to be done for the next coming years is to upgrade the current transmitters we have on those 14 sites.
Otherwise the infrastructure is there, nothing to add just to upgrade. In the digital environment the computers are always changing, we have to upgrade every time but that doesn’t mean that what you have you need to lose it, you can still use it but it is with a low capacity.
What we have can accommodate only 12 channels, currently we are running with 8 channels, but if we upgrade we are going up to 24 channels.
What are the fate and the state of TUNGA TV
Nkurunziza: Normally Tunga TV was introduced because; there was a problem of lack of awareness among the people.
And then in the awareness of the ICT campaign which was countrywide the ministry of ICT introduced that component of Tunga TV to bring on board the population, the people to understand what digital platform is.
Instead of saying decoders, STBs , they translated it in Kinyarwanda may be people can understand a bit what is digital environment, it is a kind of awareness campaign, the purpose was to educate, to inform people what the digital platform was.
{{What about its implementation? }}
Nkurunziza: It is what’s being done, when you see those guys selling decoders tele10 , transafrica, startimes, those people who were interested in buying STBs so that they can watch Rwanda television for free I think that is the key component which triggered the ministry of ICT to introduce that Tunga TV.
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