GOVT,STAKEHOLDERS REFUTE CLAIMS ON TV DECODERS

...

INNOCENT-THE BLOGGER-BOY

week, TCRA Communication Manager Innocent Mungy

 The Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has discredited claims that T1 decoders will soon be obsolete and all users would be required to purchase T2 decoders to receive transmission.

 

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian at the start of the week, TCRA Communication Manager Innocent Mungy said that the TI and T2 generations will both be usable despite improvement of technology though their capacities and performance will vary.

 

Mungy said introduction of T2 decoders is the result of technological development and only means that the people will have a wider range of choice, to use T1 or T2.

 

He cited mobile phones as an example arguing that; “the 3G were used as the first generation technology but now days 4G is used as a second generation technology but this does not make G3 obsolete.”

 

“It all depends on what a particular person wants to use for the daily consumption,” he maintained.

 

Refuting the claims that the majority of Tanzanians currently using decoders from the T1 network generation will have to dump them and adapt the T2 network he said; “TCRA conducted a survey on this matter before migrating from analogue to digital and discovered that the two technologies are both applicable.”

 

According to him the claims are brought up by businesses that were not awarded tenders to become agents of the decoders.

 

Contacted, officials at StarTimes, one of the companies awarded the tender to supply decoders in Tanzania, said both decoders, T1 and T2, are effective and  people using T1’s should not be worried.

 

The Company’s Technician Yusuph Baracha said Tanzanians using decoders with T1 should not worry because they will not be required to change to T2.

 

“Both systems, T1 and T2 are useful but what technicians were doing is to change the version through software system updates,” he detailed.

 

“It is not true that T1 decoders currently used by majority Tanzanians will be have to be replaced by T2 decoders” he insisted.

 

“Our customers must be aware that we technically change the version to adjust the strength of the decoder something which has been done on daily basis though it is difficult for users to notice the changes,” Baracha detailed.

 

According to him, the decoders with T2 network are suitable for users in remote regions that have tree cover of mountains because they are more powerful compared to T1 decoders.

 

Gaspar Ngowi, an Operation Manager from StarTimes said T1 and T2 are but models that have the same function and even have the same price.

 

“There are regions connected to T1 and others T2 all enjoy the same service...it is just a matter of the geographical location needs,” he said.

 

He explained that after the analogue systems were switched off, Star Times started selling the decoders with T1 network for resident of Dar es Salaam, but before finishing the stock, the new consignment of T2 decoders arrived.

 

“Since we received few decoders with T2 network, we decided to send them to the upcountry regions whose geographical position does not accept T1 because of the weaker signal,” he explained citing that these regions include Morogoro, Iringa and Singida.

 

The explanation comes in the wake of stakeholders’ concerns that the country would have to get rid of the T1 decoders and to use the T2 generation.

Damilare Afuwape, an engineer living in Abeokuta, Nigeria was of the view that the T1 decoders will soon be obsolete forcing the country to purchase T2 decoders.

 

He cited that the country migrated on T1 network, a first generation technology which implies that it may again need to migrate to T2 network.

 

“T2 network is a product of second generation technology which is considerably more spectrum-efficient, the main reason for digital migration in the first place,” he said.

 

“The essence of digital migration is to free up spectrum currently used for television for use in other areas, particularly for mobile telephone networks like GSM,” he detailed.

 

“With T1 technology however, only minimal spectrum is freed up unlike T2, which uses much less spectrum for television and frees more spectrum for the government to sell to telephone and internet operators,” detailed the expert.

According to him, StarTimes angered the Kenyan and Ugandan public with its continued importation of T1 decoders.

 

He said three years ago, the Ugandan Consumers’ Protection Awareness Association called the attention of the country’s authorities to the fact that the Chinese company were in flagrant indifference to the country’s goal of digital migration because they kept importing T1 decoders.

 

The association also accused StarTimes of turning Uganda into a dump for decoders no longer needed in China.

 

“Much the same thing happened in Nigeria where, despite a directive by the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, StarTimes initially deployed T1 boxes before it was pressured into changing to T2,” he claimed.