Four provinces are yet to be migrated from analogue to digital terrestrial television ahead of the court-imposed deadline of June 30.
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Friday the department was awaiting the Constitutional Court verdict on the challenge of the analogue switch-off brought by e.tv, before concluding the migration in Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Eastern Cape.
The Constitutional Court ruling is expected to decide on the appeal of a High Court decision challenging the department's readiness to cut off analogue signal.
The free-to-air broadcaster had argued that the switch-off would negatively impact its viewership numbers as there was not sufficient time to complete installation of set-top box to qualifying households.
The high court had rejected e.tv's case but extended the migration deadline from the end of March to 30 June 2022, to allow the minister to complete installations to households that had applied on 31 October 2021.
The analogue television signal is technology from the 1940s that uses radio spectrum, and the migration from analogue TV frequencies would free up the spectrum to be used by telecommunication companies.
Ntshavheni said the telecommunications regulator, Icasa, had set July 1 as the date for the release of the spectrum to the licensees.
"Unfortunately, until the analogue switch-off is completed, the country's economic hubs of Gauteng and KZN will remain with poor network connectivity with negative impact to economy."
Ntshavheni said the recent floods in the provinces of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal had severely impacted the installation of set-top boxes due to damages of damage to infrastructure and the homes of beneficiaries.
The devices allow analogue television sets to receive digital signals. The devices are distributed to poor households that are without any form of satellite signal transmitters.
A total of 109 270 households in the two provinces remain unconnected.
"To date we have installed set-top boxes to 44 424 households that are due for installations by 30 September 2022."
Switching off the analogue broadcasting signal was initially envisaged to be concluded in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament. In January 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a new switch-over date of 31 March 2022.
The provinces that have been migrated are the Free State, North West, Limpopo, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.
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