More towns to switch to digital TV in the next two months

Jul 10, 2015

As the legal battles regarding the digital migration in Uganda rage on, the sole distributor of the Free to Air digital television signals in the country—Signet, is continuing with the role out of the process.

By Billy Rwothungeyo                                

As the legal battles regarding the digital migration in Uganda rage on, the sole distributor of the Free to Air digital television signals in the country—Signet, is continuing with the role out of the process.

Bob Rich Mwecumi, an engineer with Signet has revealed that more towns are going to be switched to digital television in the next two months—starting with Masindi, Mbale, Hoima, Masaka, Arua and Kisoro this month.

 “After this, Kiboga, Jinja, Fort Portal, Rubirizi, Rukungiri, Ntungamo, Kabale, Lira, Gulu, and Soroti will also be switched to digital in August.

After this, Uganda will have fully migrated from analogue to digital,” he said.

Mwecumi made the revelations yesterday at the launch of an awareness campaign by GOtv and Signet at Multichoice Uganda’s office in Kololo.

Signet was born after a digital migration policy recommended that the national broadcaster; Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) be split into two segments; the content generation arm (UBC) and signal distribution arm (Signet).

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) recently switched off analogue signals in Kampala and surrounding districts as the June 17, 2015 International Telecommunications Union (ITU) dawned on Ugandans.

Besides the legal battles, the digital migration process has left many Ugandans confused and perturbed. Some people have said the set top boxes they have purchased do not pick up digital signals.

 “When people buy these set top boxes, they do not tune them well, and at times the direction the antenna points is wrong. We have agreed to work with vendors to guide consumers on how to tune their antennas,” Mwecumi said.

 

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