NEWS

AS Tanzania's business capital officially migrates from analogue to digital technology tonight, the country's coverage of the same has already reached 23 per cent while targeting to reach 100 per cent come 2015.

 

Tanzania Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Director General, Prof John Nkoma told a press conference in Dar es Salaam that experience has shown that people are quickly embracing the new technology.

 

He said the authority will make sure that transition takes place conveniently and in phases to allow service providers complete all technical requirements before analogue technology is completely phased out from one area to another. "It is not easy to migrate fully to digital technology in a short time considering the geographical terrain of the country.

 

But for sure by June 2015 we must comply by world requirements of becoming fully digital," he said. Prof Nkoma, however, admitted that some people who have already gone digital have reported experiencing difficulties in reception of quality pictures despite having installed decoders.

 

His advice to those facing difficulties is to contact their service providers to solve the problem. TCRA Principal Broadcasting Engineer, Mr Andrew Kisaka said there are few incidents reported, particularly in Dar es Salaam, where users complain of receiving poor signals.

 

He directed operators to work on the shortcomings. "Operators have to construct 'gap fillers' to allow users to access services even if they use indoor antennas, otherwise we are ready to deal with all public complaints in the course of implementing this migration," he said.

 

He said it was encouraging that many people are increasingly buying decoders with recent statistics showing more than 4,000 decoders are bought a day ready for digital connection. On the taxes for decoders, Prof Nkoma said already many operators sell decoders at lower prices following the government's decision to impose tax waivers on the same.