LUSAKA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said Tuesday that it was on course to switch to digital television broadcasting as migration was within schedule.
Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Kampamba Mulenga said the country was on course and progress towards digital television migration was on the schedule.
The first phase of migration from analogue to digital television had been completed with the initial switch expected to be implemented on Oct. 1, 2017 covering major cities, Mulenga said at a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers' Meeting on Communication and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Durban, South Africa.
Zambia, she said, is the first country in Africa which successfully acquired over 500,000 decoders in readiness for the switch, adding that it shows the country is ready to step into the digital era.
The government has assigned TopStar, a joint venture agreement between state broadcaster the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and Chinese satellite television provider StarTimes, which has cut the prices of its decoders by half to enable more people to afford to buy them.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had set June 17, 2015 as the deadline for countries to migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial television migration.
Zambia partially met the deadline, but the country has been running simulcast television services running in urban areas.
