Lately, there have been reports in the media about the impending analogue to digital TV switchover, putting the deadline date on December 22, 2012. One question, however, comes to mind: Are we prepared? To compound the puzzle even further, it has been reported that Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, itself a competitor in the business, will have exclusive rights to distribute the digital signal.

Analogue TV is transmitted as a continuously variable signal. Digital TV on the other hand encodes the television picture as a series of binary numbers, and then uses computer processing to compress it so that it is transmitted in a fraction of the bandwidth, or capacity, taken by the equivalent analogue TV signal. While it is understandable that digital switchover is inevitable due to universal access needs, cost and spectrum capacity savings and also that many other countries are turning off their analogue terrestrial TV signal, many issues need to be addressed.

Turning off the analogue transmission of TV will mean that all current analogue TV sets will need to be converted to receive digital TV via a set-top-box (STB) or be replaced with an integrated digital TV set (iDTV) to decode digital signals. There are also two potentially damaging effects to the environment due to digital switchover namely; increased energy consumption and the disposal of televisions, VCRs and other equipment replaced or made redundant as a direct consequence of the switchover.

For current low power DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), 34 per cent of rooftop aerials are likely to need upgrading to receive a reliable signal. Even after switchover, up to 10 per cent will need replacing. There could be particular problems in multiple dwelling units, where services are delivered through a communal aerial system, owned and maintained by the landlord, and with reception through set-top aerials.

Lastly, VCRs are analogue devices so it is not possible to watch a different digital channel to that being recorded on a VCR. A second STB is needed to convert the VCR to digital reception separately from the television set. For convenience, it is most likely that consumers will want to replace VCRs, probably with a hard disk digital personal video recorder (PVR), although VCRs may be retained for watching pre-recorded tapes.

Those reasons, and many others, form a basis for us to borrow a leaf from others like South Africa who seem to have done more adequate planning for the process.

Firstly, several feasibility studies for turning off the analogue signal have been carried out involving a technical trial on a small group of houses, a fuller trial which investigated the technical issues for broadcasters and consumers and another trial which will inform the development of the assistance scheme that will be rolled out.

Secondly, the South African government made it clear to the ordinary consumer why the changeover is necessary as opposed to Uganda where many people are still not aware of the policy to switch the analogue signal off. Not to mention the need to involve all stakeholders such as the public service broadcasters, the supply chain industry (television equipment retailers and aerial installers) to ensure suitable equipment is available, consumer organisations and groups to advise the digital switchover programme and their members.

Thirdly, instead of the changeover process being a onetime "big bang", it will be done region by region where in each region, one analogue TV channel will be converted to its digital multiplexes carrying the digital equivalent of this analogue channel and other services.

Consumers who have not converted to digital, or those who have problems with reception, would then have a chance to set up their TV, with only a short-term possible loss of one channel. In addition, the South African government is putting in place a support scheme for the most vulnerable consumers where assistance will be offered to all households with at least one person aged 75 or over and/or with a significant disability.

So the question begs again how prepared are we for the changeover challenge.

Mr Kizza is a Ugandan associated with iThemba Labs in Cape Town, South Africa.