The world’s leading satellite operator, Eutelsat says it has helped a number of African countries to move from analogue broadcasting to digital.
According to Christoph Limmer, Vice President, Global Sales and Commercial Development for Broadcast Services at Eutelsat, the company has also been instrumental in supporting the digital migration in some European countries like France and Italy.
[contextly_sidebar id=”NJffNslnYWDhCEtHTio8VI2UqLQiw1OE”]“…Also in Africa we are involved in a variety of projects and countries like Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Zimbabwe [who] are using our satellites and support. We are confident that many more countries will join us in the coming 12-18 month,” he added.
Mr. Limmer disclosed this to this reporter on the sidelines of the DISCOP Africa conference, which was held earlier in November in Johannesburg.
DISCOP Confab
The DISCOP conference was aimed at assessing the challenges related to Africa’s Digital Migration journey and the way forward.
Mr. Limmer who was one of the key speakers at the conference observed that the challenges hindering Africa from achieving a digital switchover has to do with lack of infrastructure.
“Certainly the high investment in upgrading the network infrastructure plays a crucial role in the process but also organizational matters like who will be running the migration project, what type of services will be offered and who is driving the digital migration? The key of a success implementation will be a combination of infrastructures, namely terrestrial and satellite. Satellite technology allows you to start your digital migration today, with no investment in ground infrastructure and you reach anyone within the borders of the country. Therefore, it’s time as well as very cost efficient. The combination of these infrastructures has been successfully implemented already in various countries around the world, including Africa,” he added.
Mr. Limmer further urged African governments to focus on providing adequate infrastructure to make the migration in the continent a success.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana