South Africa backlash over DTT standard

Criticism is mounting against the South African communications director general Mamodupi Mohlala over the likely announcement that the country will drop DVB-T in favour of the Japanese ISDB standard.

On Monday Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda told parliament that no such decision had been taken, but in an interview with Tech Central published the following day Mohlala said experts had advised DVB-T to be “problematic” and that it would make more sense to deploy its successor DVB-T2 or another standard such as ISDB.

Backed by Japanese investment, the Brazillian variant of ISDB has been gaining ground in Latin America, and the apparent enthusiasm within the South African administration has left local industry fuming. They say that with two thirds of the world have chosen DVB, any problems with the system would have long since been detected. Several million rand has been invested in the development of product suitable for DTT transmission, while its implementation has been through a series of delays.

Separately, Paraguay confirmed on Tuesday that it too would adopt the ISDB system, joining the majority of Latin American countries including Brazil and Argentina, though Colombia and Uruguay have chosen the European standard.