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IN A LITTLE OVER a year - if all goes according to plan - South Africa should be starting the switch over from analogue broadcasting technology to digital terrestrial broadcasting technology (DTT).
That's the evolution of the standard TV signal that we all know and love. Many countries worldwide are slowly moving their TV signals to the DTT system and at some point in the future the old signal will be turned off and those who haven't moved across will be without a service.
Future TVs sold will be designed for DTT but older sets will need a decoder - much like the MNet decoder, but without the monthly fee - to receive the new signal.
The key difference is that digital signals - because essentially they're a string of ones and zeros being sent through the air - are more efficient than the current analogue signal, which uses a waveform to transmit information.
The one example of a digital TV signal that we have all already seen is the DStv signal - the main difference being that the DTT signal is sent from a land-based transmitter and th DStv signal comes from a satellite.
The benefit of moving to DTT is that digital signals take up less of the spectrum and because of that it's possible to either put more TV stations on the air or for some of the spectrum to be sold off for other telecommunication uses.