The continent’s telecommunications body, the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) believes that the deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the digital switch will not be a challenge for most African countries.
The deadlines for the migration is 2015 for developing countries including Africa and the 2012 deadline is for the developed countries where some have already completed the switch-over.
Mr Soumaila Abdoulkarim, Secretary General of ATU told ghanabusinessnews.com in an exclusive interview that the continent has no problem with the adoption of the migration from analogue to digital.
“There is no problem…In many African countries there has been many activities to try and adapt to the common proposition of the ITU,” he told ghanabusinessnews.com.
Mr Abdoulkarim added, “We are sure that they will adapt and the common way to go is to see how Africans show that they will be ready for the 2015 deadline.”
Mr. Abdoulkarim, hopes that some African countries will help others to achieve this migration in terms of capacity building and other relevant areas to speed up the process.
He said during Geneva 2015 (G-2015) meeting which decided the deadline, “We were there and we negotiated to act to that deadline. I think there is no problem at all…the African countries know that and they were there at the meeting.”
But he was quick to add that “There is no problem anyway if some cannot achieve the target in 2015. What we want is for most African countries to have the political will to move to achieve the target – that is the key issue.”
He indicated that Africa cannot keep analogue equipment if in the next five years the switch-over process is not completed.
“If we don’t move to digital in next five years, we cannot keep the analogue ones.”
The migration will be same as that of the telecommunications migration some years back, he said.
The body will meet in Nairobi, Kenya from September 6-8 this year, to hold a high-level forum with Communication Ministers from all its member countries to find a common standard which will be adopted for the digital migration.
By Ekow Quandzie