Tonga gets assistance for move to digital broadcasting [1]
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 14:38. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
TONGA has been chosen by the International Telecommunications Union ITU, as one of five Asia-Pacific Region countries to receive assistance for the development of their roadmaps to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting in television and radio.
The four other countries, all from Asia are Cambodia, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The CEO for the Ministry of Communication and Information, Paula Ma'u said on January 11 that they applied last year for the ITU's pilot program and were pleased to hear from them just before Christmas that Tonga was chosen as one of the pilot countries.
Paula said that ITU would start implementing the program in February, with the recruiting of experts to carry out a feasibility study, "assess our current situation, then identify our needs, equipment etc."
Paula said that the training of local operators was scheduled for March and May. He said that the actual migration should start this year, "and it could take a few years to actually migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting."
Most broadcasters are switching to digital broadcasting because of lack of frequency space. Digital broadcasting uses digital data rather than analogue waveforms to carry broadcasts over television channels or assigned radio frequency bands.