Omane-Boamah charges NCA to enforce laws

The Ministry of Communication has directed the National Communications Authority (NCA) strictly enforce the laws that prevents people from selling fake settop boxes to unsuspecting members of the public.

“The NCA must ensure strict compliance of the law by ensuring that people who intend to sell fake settop boxes to the public are arrested and dealt with according to the law”, he insisted and added that “you mus also conduct a lot of ministry shopping to fish out the bad people selling counterfeit set-up boxes”.

Dr Omane-Boamah, gave the directive a public forum to unveil the official logo of the digital migration from analogue television to digital terrestrial television in Accra on Thursday.

The Minister who has been credited with efforts to ensure the smooth migration of the system said, the cost implications involved for members of the public who are unable to afford digital television sets should not be aggravated by allowing some people to sell fake boxes to them.

“I trust in the ability to the NCA and I know that they will live up to expectation to ensure that only the original settop boxes are sold to the public”, he said.

Meanwhile, the forum was meant to seek input into a draft policy document to regulate activities in the broadcasting industry in Ghana.

Dubbed “Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), Broadcasting Policy 2016” the ministry sought to develop a comprehensive policy to guide the industry.

Dr Omane-Boamah said a successful migration and transition from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television broadcasting required government policy to guide the migration process and set framework for a progressive digital terrestrial television environment.

He said the policy document already has the input of all stakeholders including the NCA, the National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), and the general public.

Objectives

On the objectives of the policy, the minister said the document would create a policy environment for migrating of analogue broadcasting to DTT and smooth implementation of the DTT network solution.  

He indicated that the policy would also guarantee the availability of all existing terrestrial analogue television stations in digital formats in at least their current existing coverage.

“It will allow all existing television households access to digital television services and ensure universal access to free-to-air television services,” he noted.

Switch-over 

Dr Omane-Boamah said the government has given September 21st, 2017, deadline to switch-off all analogue transmitters and frequencies in the country. 

This means that all television broadcasting platforms would be switched from broadcasting programmes in analogue transmission to digital transmission at the September 21st 2017, deadline.

He urged the public not to dispose what he described as “hunch back” television sets but rather purchase approved digital terrestrial set-up box in order to enjoy the digital platform.

“Television users in Ghana who do not have a digital terrestrial box will not be able to enjoy their television programmes since they will not receive signals that transmit to their television set at the September 21st 2017, deadline,” he said. 

He underscored the need for the public to be extra cautious when purchasing television set, saying “not all flat screen televisions on the market are digital and not all digital television set conform to Ghanaian standard”. 

Digital Ghana Thumb

The forum was also held to unveil the digital conformance logo (Digital Ghana Thumb).  

The logo has a television set on top a body, a star in the national colours of red, gold and green with an inscription ‘Koo Digi’.

The new conformance logo was developed to help consumers, retailers and the general public to identify the approved television receivers which conform to the country’s technical specifications, especially as Ghana goes through the switchover process.

The minister said the government was very proud to have been part of this process and had worked assiduously with all stakeholders to bring this to fruition.

Conformance regime

The Deputy Director General of the NCA, Mr Albert Animfo for his part said presently the conformance regime was in force as the transitional period for television receivers.

“All DTT receivers be it Set Top Boxes (STBs), or integrated digital television sold in Ghana are required to pass this conformance test in order to obtain the ‘Digital Ghana Thumb’ certification mark or Conformation,” he noted.  

The Deputy Director said the NCA would soon embark on a market surveillance exercise to ascertain and verify that all the DTT receivers on the market conform to the new conformance regime. 

“We will ensure that importers and dealers are in compliance with our standards and that only the approved television set bear the Digital Ghana Thumb Certification Mark,” he noted. 

The aim of this is to assure consumers that even though we have put out prescribed standards, we go further to ensure their implementation,” the Mr Aminfo added.