South Africa has finally begun the process of switching off its analogue transmitter network.
The province by province process has begun in Free State with transmitters in Boesmanskop and the district of Xhariep.
The switch-off in each province will be systematic and in phases, moving from one analogue transmitter coverage area to the other, until all district municipalities within the province are complete,” read a statement from the Ministry of Communications & Digital Technologies.
Free State will be followed by the Northern Cape in April, the North West, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape in May, KwaZulu-Natal in July, the Western Cape in November, Limpopo in December and Gauteng in January 2022.
The switchover is scheduled to be completed by March 2022. However, a series of deadlines have been missed and last December telecommunications company Telkom won an injunction against the telecommunications regulator Icasa over plans to auction of the freed-up spectrum.