DCEC investigates digital migration

The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is said to be investigating the process through which Botswana adopted the Japanese digital migration standard over the European one that has been adopted by the rest of the Southern African Development Community. While he gave an unusually long-winded answer, DCEC’s spokesperson, Lentswe Motshoganetsi, essentially confirmed that an investigation is indeed underway. 

“I can’t refute the allegations but I can also not confirm to you if there is anything,” he said. According to his explanation, DCEC is inundated with “more than 10 000 cases” that it is investigating and it would be “a tedious job to comb through all the files at short notice. I think I will need time.”It is likely the Directorate will investigate anomalies that have been noted by those with intimate knowledge of the digital migration process. It has emerged that the decision to adopt the Japanese standard went against explicit expert advice.  The experts recommended Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial 2nd Generation (DVB-T2) standard, which is European, over the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) which is Japanese but were overruled.

South Africa was also wooed by the Japanese but resisted. A delegation from the Asian country visited South Africa to demonstrate an ISDB-T transmission but the South African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA) found the technology to be “neither revolutionary nor innovative but merely confirmation that old 1st generation standards can be modified to operate in 8 MHz as it should have been able to do since 1997.” In the Botswana case, tests were reportedly carried out by a Brazilian university which, to date, has yet to share its findings with all the relevant stakeholders. Despite this, Botswana adopted the Japanese standard.
Through its spokesman, Dr. Jeff Ramsay, the government has touted the virtues of the Japanese standard. However, in March this year when Botswana announced that it was adopting the Japanese standard, SADIBA issued a press statement in which it pointed out the deficiencies of ISDB-T and noted that the country would incur the highest costs “of any nation” as a result of migrating on the Japanese standard.

“Botswana media reports state that the hierarchical mode of operation of ISDB-T “allows for the provision of direct transmission to Batswana through multiple handheld devices, including cell phones, as well as traditional receivers”. 

The fact is that current GSM mobile handsets available in Botswana will not receive the broadcast service. Only handset fitted with an additional ISDB-T receiver would be capable of receiving the ISDB-T broadcast service. Such handsets will cost more than GSM mobile handsets currently in use in the market. It must be clarified that every home, not already connected to satellite TV, would require either a new integrated digital television (iDTV) or a Set top Box (STB) in order to receive the digital transmissions. The combined cost of these access devices constitutes the single biggest cost of the digital transition of any nation,” the statement said.

SADIBA further noted that “a decision to implement the aged minority ISDB-T standard puts a nation on the back foot. It burdens citizens with unnecessary costs, reduces prospect of costs dropping in future and reduces the benefits possible from the transition to Digital Terrestrial Television. It sets a country up for a wasteful 2nd transition to a newer technology in future.

A decision for ISDB-T by an African country isolates that country from the region and the rest of the world that is implementing and benefitting from implementing cutting edge 2nd generation technology - DVB-T2.”