The cost of acquiring set-top boxes in Uganda — for the switch to digital TV — fell sharply over the past three months following the government’s decision to scrap the 25 per cent import duty on the boxes, but the country still failed to meet the December 31, 2012 deadline.

The tax waiver for one year, from June 2012 to June 2013, has not seen any major uptake by the public and pay television companies which said they needed several months to clear existing stock.

The waiver was meant to facilitate the country’s smooth transition from analogue to digital terrestrial transmission.

READ: Uganda, Burundi to miss region’s December digital migration deadline

In 2011, there were disagreements about the choice of company to implement the digital signal distribution, mismanagement of the process and choice of migration platform.

Uganda Communications Commission spokesperson Fred Otunnu said the government was currently installing terrestrial equipment including masts in the central region for a digital switch by May.

“The government has allocated about $2 million to cater for the implementation of digital broadcasting within greater Kampala by April/May, before rolling the project throughout the country in the subsequent months,” Mr Otunnu said, adding that the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation will be the sole signal distributor in the meantime as the government reviews the Digital Migration Policy to allow other players.

The country’s private broadcasters rejected UBC as a signal distributor accusing it of being incompetent and a competitor.

Uganda is estimated to have two million analogue television sets countrywide, according to the Ministry of Information Communication Technology.

In the other EAC countries, duty on the set-top boxes were also waived to reduce their cost since this was one of the reasons cited as a major obstacle to the switch from analogue to digital.

The five East African Community member states –– Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi –– agreed to complete digital migration process by 31 December 2012, three years earlier than the agreed deadline of December 31, 2015 agreed upon by members of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

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However, only Tanzania has migrated to digital TV as per the agreed regional deadline despite reported technical hitches.

READ: Tanzania leads East Africa in switching to digital television

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority through communication manager Innocent Mungy said reception for the five national channels that are aired for free — ITV, Channel Ten, TBC1, East African Television and Star Television — was 80 per cent clear.

According to Mr Mungy, other local channels can be seen only through licensed broadcasters and therefore the three digital broadcasting terrestrial stations, Basic, Agape and Star Medial, are not able to broadcast them.

Dar es Salaam and its environs was the first area to have its signal migrated to digital, and now, “the regulatory authority is preparing to migrate signals in other regions,” he said.

According to the authority however, it has been reported that the strength of the signal depended on the location of the receiving decoder — those in low lying areas suffered weak signal — and that extreme weather and even interference from vehicular noise affects quality of transmission.

The numerous technical faults experienced by viewers was blamed on faulty decoder set-up and installation as opposed to being a problem with the devices themselves or service provision.

Zuku Tanzania country manager Fadhili Mwaiseba told The EastAfrican that the digital switch is considered a success and the company has registered more clients since the migration to digital.

The company charges a subscription fee of Tsh92,000 ($57.1) and broadcasts three national channels, TBC1, Channel Ten and Clouds Television.

Rwanda on Wednesday meanwhile blamed the missed migration deadline on procurement challenges. The Rwanda Utility Regulation Authority said that this has caused a shortage of decoders in the market. Currently the price ranges from between $30 and $40 each.

In Uganda, the price of decoders –– sold mainly by MultiChoice Uganda (GOtv) and StarTimes –– currently range between Ush109,000 ($39.6) and Ush124,000 ($45), depending on the service provider, down from a high of Ush154, 000 ($56) in September 2012.

Additional reporting by Rosemary Mirondo