South Africa : Universal Service Fund could help SA's Set Top Box funding

By Michael Appel

Pretoria - The Department of Communications is to approach the Universal Service Fund (USF) to help finance Set Top Box subsidies in South Africa if National Treasury turns down the department's request to subsidise five million Set Top Boxes.

Director General at the Department of Communications Lyndall Shope-Mafole told reporters on Wednesday, that the National Treasury was currently priority spending and that in case her department's request to subsidise five million STBs is turned down, they would approach the USF for finance.

Initial estimates indicate that a Set Top Box will cost around R700. Government is looking to subsidise 70 percent of that for five million poor households.

The USF was created by the United States Federal Communications Commission in 1997 to meet the goals of Universal Service as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The Director General, speaking at an Economic Cluster briefing at the Union Buildings, said the digital migration process and the introduction of the Set Top Boxes will improve the capacity of government to deliver services to the people.

The Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy is a process of converting the broadcast of television broadcasting signals from analogue to digital technology.

The migration was necessitated by developments in telecommunications technologies which enable a more efficient use of radio frequency spectrum as well as better quality pictures and sound.

In order to receive the digital signal on current analogue TV sets, households will need to purchase Set Top Boxes that convert the digital signal into analogue signal.

In 2006, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) made the decision that all countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Iran must migrate to digital broadcasting by 2015.

Meanwhile, Director General in the Department of Trade and Industry Tshediso Matona said his department was pleased with the recent decision at the G-20 Summit to resume the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha development round of talks.

"Having failed several times in the past, it is important that we return to the talks with a high hope for success," said Mr Matona, adding that he hoped there would be flexibility and an appetite for compromise among participating countries.

The WTO Doha round has stagnated around the issue of lowering agricultural trade barriers since talks began in November 2001.

The main difference in opinion regarding the lowering of tariffs is between the developed countries including the US, Japan and the European Union (EU), and developing countries mainly China, Brazil, India and South Africa.

While not confirmed, the Doha round could be resuming as soon as 13 December 2008 in Switzerland, said Mr Matona. - BuaNews