Zambia lags behind in digital TV migration

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 10:24:49 +0000

By SANDRA MACHIMA

TOP Star Communications company has committed itself to ensure people get the benefit of  digital migration and wants the system rolled out through the installation of transmission sites across the country by December 2017.

Top Star Communications Limited chief executive officer Leo Liao said Zambia has lagged behind in digital migration unlike its neighbor Tanzania where it had been operational since 2012.

Mr Liao said his staff would transfer technology and knowledge to the local people for better perfor-mance.

Top Star is a Zambian company registered in June 2016 as an authorized dealer to move the entire country from analogue to digital television reception.

And television digitalization was one of the urgent tasks the Government had committed itself to by ensuring the country swiftly migrates from analogue to digital television reception through the provi-sion of state of the art broadcasting and transmission technology.

The company was advised to ensure Zambians enjoyed the benefits of digitalization since the project was launched in 2015.

Government spokesperson Kampamba Mulenga recently said Governmrnt was committed to complete the digital migration process by the end of 2017 that would see all households in the country access the digital TV signal.

Top Star, as the authorized public signal distributor in Zambia, would ensure that digital television signal was available across the entire country using the highest quality technology of digital terrestrial television (DTT).

In 2006, over 156 member countries of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) signed a binding treaty in Geneva and African countries agreed to switch from analogue transmission and mi-grate to digital broadcasting by 2015, but currently most of African countries including Zambia, had not achieved the goal.