MASERU — The Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Selibe Mochoboroane, officially launched the digital migration project this week.
A 2006 agreement with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) made in Geneva, which is leading telecommunications technology development in emerging countries, saw the country commit to digital migration along with the rest of Africa.
According to the agreement, all signatory countries including Lesotho are required to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting by June 17 2015.
Lesotho is, under the treaty, therefore obliged to migrate to digital broadcasting system.
The ministry had setup a digital migration unit to take charge of the migration process supported by the advisory committee with membership drawn from regulator, Lesotho Communication Authority (LCA) and the communications ministry.
Currently the ministry has made some progress towards ensuring smooth operation from analogue to digital broadcasting.
Mochoboroane said the benefits of migration from analogue to digital broadcasting were better television picture and sound quality with availability of more programmes over the same infrastructure.
“With digital broadcasting, we will overcome the current challenge that we have at the Lesotho Television (LTV) during bad weather whereby signal quality is affected,” he said.
The project will offer a wide range of high quality channels and services, some being free-to-air and others on subscriptions.
It would also provide households with interactive services and the possibility of access to the internet.