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Cape Town - The government is warning people who want to buy new television sets to beware of cut-price sets that will only
receive analogue signals.
Deputy minister of communications Radhakrishna Padayachie told a media briefing in parliament on Thursday: "We are concerned at the possibility that the industry might dump analogue televisions on our people by discounting schemes. If these televisions become available at low cost, people might be tempted to purchase them."
He said that if people are in the market for new TV sets, they must ensure that the sets they purchase now are digitally ready.
Although the migration from analogue to digital television signals is scheduled to start in November, the specifications for the set-top boxes which will allow analogue receivers to pick up and translate the digital signals have still not been sorted out with the SA Bureau of Standards.
The department of communications wants to pack into the set-top boxes as much interconnectivity as possible to allow people access to the e-government services, and this has delayed the design of the digi-boxes.
Ministers made it clear on Thursday that they want the boxes to be manufactured in South Africa. They seem unworried by the fact that the boxes may not be available when the digital signal is first switched on. "We will have three years, before the analogue signal is switched off," communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said.
Also waiting for the Bureau of Standards to complete its work on the boxes is a "migration awareness strategy", which will aim to inform the viewers all about the switchover. It too will be launched soon, ministers said.
The government is also considering how to approach the question of subsidising the cost of the boxes to the poor. At present the expected cost of the box is between four and five hundred rand.
- I-Net Bridge