South Africa’s Northern Cape will become the first province to transition from analogue to digital broadcasting as the Department of Communications (DoC) moves to implement the final stages of the years-overdue digital terrestrial television project.

In a phased approach over the next 36 months, starting in the final quarter of this year, the analogue frequencies will be switched off province by province as the subsidised set-top boxes (STBs) are deployed and the much anticipated Analogue Switch Off (ASO) programme kicks off.

By March 2016, the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa) hopes to have transitioned the more signal-interference-prone Northern Cape’s 240 000-odd television- (TV-) owning households onto the digital broadcasting platform, with more than 120 000 poor TV-owning households in the region equipped with a subsidised STB.

This will follow the deployment, by December 2015, of more than 7 000 subsidised STBs to the “priority” SKA region, in the Northern Cape, which would mostly make use of direct-to-home satellite broadcasting, as opposed to the terrestrial infrastructure.

The DoC initially aimed to subsidise around five-million of the decoders required to intercept the digital broadcasting frequencies; however, information emerging from Usaasa’s presentation to the portfolio committees on Communications and Telecommunications and Postal Services this week indicates that this will extend to around six-million of South Africa’s 12.8-million TV-owning households.

By June 2016, the DoC aimes to complete the migration and deliver subsidised STBs for South African TV-owning households located along the borders of Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho, which are also sensitive to neighbouring frequency disruptions. This phase will include Limpopo.

Overall, the DoC expects to complete the ASO programme in Mpumalanga in the fourth quarter of next year, with subsidised STBs installed in more than half of the 908 000 TV- owning households in the province.

During 2017, the DoC will shift the focus of the ASO programme to the North West, the Free State and the Eastern Cape, deploying 477 000, 414 000 and 712 000 subsidised decoders respectively.

By the third year, focus will shift to KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, with one-million and 610 000 of the 1.9-million and 1.5-million TV-owning households in the provinces respectively equipped with a subsidised STB.

Gauteng will be the last province to have its analogue frequencies switched off, with the DoC allocating around 1.5-million subsidised STBs to TV-owning households in South Africa’s most populous province.

The aim of the province-to-province staggered approach is to “draw on the lessons” of every deployment, starting with the smaller and less complex provinces; limit any potential negative impacts and interruptions to one province at a time; and allow for the concentration of human and financial resources to be confirmed to each province at a time to enable a smooth and manageable transition.

The first STB orders are expected to be placed this month, as the South African Post Office (Sapo), which was tasked with dispensing the decoders, has trained its staff, finalised its logistical and distribution plans and negotiated the R771-million funding shortfall for the R917-million decoder distribution project.

Sapo will, however, kick off the roll-out, despite only having R146-million in funds approved by the National Treasury, until the funds are depleted or the R771-million balance has been secured.