Nationwide DTT switch to commence in March

The nationwide Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) switch will commence in March this year, the Ministry of Communications has revealed.

A Deputy Minister of Communications, Mr George Nenyi Andah, made the announcement during the official launch of the new Multichoice Ghana office in Accra last week.

According to Mr Andah, the Ministry of Communications had engaged and contracted power companies, including the Volta River Authority (VRA), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and NEDCO, to provide dedicated power transformers to each of the 37 DTT sites which were ready to transmit digital signals. He added that the power provision was expected to be completed for the test transmission and network optimisation to commence by March 2018.

Mr Andah disclosed further that his ministry had also registered as a limited liability company, the Central Digital Transmission Company Limited (CDTCL), which would serve as the national multiplex operator to manage the transmission aspect of the broadcasting value chain.

“The DTT Network project should be self-financing and a potential revenue-generating platform with the objective to maintain the network and pay for the investment made by government over time. The DTT company will have the exclusive rights as the signal and transmission carrier services for all authorised Free-to-Air (FTA) broadcasters in Ghana,” he said.

Ghana signed the Geneva 2006 (GE-06) Agreement which established the Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Plan in the bands 174 – 230 MHz and 470 – 862 MHz at the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU’s) Regional Radiocommunications Conference.

In 2006, the roadmap for the transition from analogue television broadcasting to DTT broadcasting was commenced. Even though Ghana missed the international deadline of June 17, 2015, there is a window of opportunity to conclude all the migration processes globally by 2020. — GB