Set-top boxes to get Internet access

Government has decided to include a “return path” in the 5m digital set-top boxes that will be subsidised for poorer households. By Craig Wilson.

Added by Craig Wilson on 6 June 2012.
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Dina Pule

Communications minister Dina Pule said on Wednesday that the set-top boxes that will be subsidised for poorer households will get a “return path” to provide basic Internet access. She made the announcement at the department of communications’ ICT Indaba in Cape Town.

South Africans will be required to purchase set-top boxes as the country migrates from analogue to digital terrestrial television.

Government has said it will subsidise 5m of the boxes as part of the migration process. Set-top boxes convert digital signals into analogue ones so that legacy equipment without a digital receiver can still be used.

The SA Communications Forum (SACF), an industry lobby group that has been pushing hard for a return path to be included in the boxes, praised the minister’s decision, saying it would provide Internet access “for the masses of economically marginalised South Africans”.

The SACF contends that the inclusion of Internet access in the set-top box specification requirements is “the best opportunity to bridge the digital divide” and says it wishes to “congratulate the minister for her strong leadership in grasping this once-off opportunity”.

“This decision means that SA, which had been lagging behind in Internet penetration on the continent, will move swiftly ahead in its goals to achieve universal access and ICT competitiveness.”

Pule has not yet provided a reason for her decision or elaborated on the technical specifications of the return path and what impact it might have on the digital migration process.  — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media

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  • colinza

    Because MyWireless worked so well…

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    Shush!  Don’t give them any ideas.  Judging by how blindly they’ve stumbled through this process, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they shoved a Sentech modem on each STB for a return path.

  • Tms78

    Return path doesnt allow for intenet browsing but it only allows interactivity for e-government services…….somebody is going to be embarrased

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    I get the feeling the people pushing for the return path don’t actually know what they’re fighting for.  It’s possible it could be used for internet, but the wikipedia article “Set Top Box Users Group” quoted in a comment on another article echoed your points exactly, which suggests they are ignorant of the facts.  In fact, they have offered no relevant facts.

    It feels like they’re being played for fools by the backers of this iniative, namely the people who will truly gain – STB makers, and the mobile internet providers.  The citizens get so little out of this.

    This is like watching a train smash in slow motion.

  • STB Khash

    So what if the technology wont be perfect at first? The first computer was not perfect. Nor was the first cell phone. You guys only chose to see the negative and that is why all you will tell your grand kids one day is unfulfilled stories about Se Top Boxes. Get off your high ends and be part of the revolution. Critics of note!

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    There’s a big difference between “not perfect” and “totally unsuitable”

    Do you perhaps know what this return path that you’re supporting entails? 

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