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Muthambi ‘defies’ ANC in set-top box debate

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(File, Beeld)
(File, Beeld)

Johannesburg - Arguments over whether South Africa’s set-top boxes for digital television should have controls or not have made a reappearance, threatening an already delayed migration process.

According to a Business Day report, Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi has “defied her African National Congress (ANC) colleagues” and recommended that Cabinet choose set-top boxes without conditional access.

At the ANC’s first lekgotla for the year, the ruling parity called for “the finalisation of the digital migration process to support broadband roll out” and said that “government must move with the necessary speed” to meet a deadline of set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) of 15 June 2015.

In turn, the Business Day reported that the ANC’s instruction could see government finally adopting set-top box controls.

Debate has been raging for years among key players like broadcasters over whether or not South Africa should adopt set-top box controls. The debate has also played its part in disrupting the digital migration process.

Set-top boxes are needed to decode digital signals for analogue televisions, and government plans to subsidise these devices for five million poorer households.

Muthambi’s reported plan then to oppose her party’s recommendation risks being another obstacle in SA’s digital migration process. It also risks placing further embarrassment on SA which is being overtaken other nations such as Namibia and Kenya which have started switching off their analogue signals.

Fin24 contacted the Department of Communications spokesperson, Ayanda Hollow, for comment. But he said Muthambi was not yet available for comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister for Telecommunications and Postal Services, Marian Shinn, told Fin24 that she’s not surprised by the minister’s latest reported move.

"This is typical Minister Muthambi. She's been playing spoiler on this whole issue of the set-top box encryption for close on a year now, since she became Minister of Communications,” Shinn told Fin24.

"It's not surprising that Muthambi who's been opposed to it all the time is now trying a last ditch effort to get that policy held back or changed to do away with encryption on set-top boxes,” said Shinn.

A tale of disruption

Despite debate among broadcasters stalling SA’s digital migration process, political decisions have had an equally disruptive effect.

President Jacob Zuma’s splitting of the Department of Communications in 2014 created confusion over which government entity is responsible for digital migration.

It resulted in a reported ‘turf war’ between the the Department of Communications and the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services over the process.

Eventually, President Zuma declared that Muthambi’s department would be responsible for the process.

But one of Muthambi’s predecessors, former Minister of Communications Yunus Carrim, had made amendments with South Africa’s Digital Broadcast Policy which determined that encryption would be the preserve of broadcasters while the subsidised set-top boxes for poorer households would be encrypted.

Shinn said that Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele, was in a position in July 2014 to have the revised ‘Broadcasting Digital Migration’ policy approved by Cabinet. But this process stalled when Muthambi said this was her responsibility.

The digital migration process then subsequently stalled again.

"Minister Muthambi, because she's minister of communications, felt that she was in control of the digital migration policy because broadcasting, i.e. the SABC, fell under her ministry," Shinn told Fin24.

Preventing theft and corruption

The DA’s Shinn told Fin24 that her party supports set box controls because they mitigate the risk of theft, especially for subsidised devices given to poorer households.

Shinn said boxes with encrypted controls can only used by identified household and if they are stolen, they can then be disabled remotely.

"So, it's basically a protection of ownership of the set-top boxes, that is what the policy is about and that is what we support,” said Shinn.

"And the logistic chain of installing these boxes is wide open for corruption and abuse and boxes to disappear on route.

"These boxes are going to go to remote places in the country.

What happens next?

Despite Muthambi’s latest reported move to challenge the ANC on set-top box controls, Shinn said she expects approval of the amended digital migration policy “any moment now”.

Also, processes within cabinet are set to continue regarding digital migration.

"We wait for the cabinet to make its decision and say that the boxes will have access control, encryption and then for the tenders to proceed and a winning bidder or couple of winning bidders to be chosen and then to start the assembly process,” said Shinn.

Shinn added that a level of urgency is needed with the process as South Africa’s analogue television signal risk being of poorer quality if neighbouring countries switch to digital signals. The ITU then won’t be in a position to protect South Africa from signal interference after the June deadline passes.

Concerns also exist over whether SA has the necessary logistics capability to deal with digital migration as little to no training has been done and no call centres established.

"The main distribution arm and installation arm for these set-top boxes is the South African Post Office (Sapo),” said Shinn.

"And now we know that they're in a state of crisis at the moment,” she said, referring to how the post office was hit by a crippling months long strike last year and has asked government for a R2.3bn bailout.

Concerns also exist over whether enough money is available to carry out the digital migration process in SA.

At a presentation to the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services in September 2014, the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa) said that of R4.3bn required for the set-top box tender only R2,39bn had been approved by National Treasury for payment through the Universal Service Access Fund (USAF).

Usaasa has said levies could be raised from all active licensed Electronic Communication Network Service (ECNS) providers. Yet only Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom are ECNS providers, meaning they could have to pay almost R2bn extra to cover the shortfall.

In light of all of this, Shinn said SA has a long way to go to meet the switchover.

"It's a long and complicated process and there's an awful lot of landmines along the way,” she said.

Listen to Fin24 tech editor Gareth van Zyl interview Marian Shinn:

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