Cape Town – The construction of an undersea fibre-optic cable that will land in South Africa is expected to commence in the first half of this year, said the Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

Ms Matsepe-Casaburri was speaking to reporters at a media briefing on the programme of action of government's economic, investment and employment cluster on Monday, following President Thabo Mbeki's State-of-the-Nation address on Friday.

It is understood that the submarine fibre-optic cable is being laid along the west coast of Africa and would be linked to Europe.

Reporters heard that part of the cable would be operational by the end of 2009, thus providing additional capacity to the communication demands of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, reporters heard on Monday.

The construction of the cable is part of a private-public partnership between governments of the region, telecom operators and private sector investors and is expected to provide accessible, affordable, and reliable telecommunications to the country and the continent.

Ms Matsepe-Casaburri said there has been a great deal of interest in the cable by all telecommunications companies in South Africa, fixed-line as well as cellular service and data providers.

Meanwhile, state-owned company Sentech, which focuses on the wholesale supply of wireless connectivity, is on track to replace the country's old analogue television signal transmitters with digital terrestrial television transmitters.

According to an announcement made by President Mbeki in his State-of-the-Nation speech on Friday, government aims to provide digital broadcasting to 50 per cent of the country's population by the end of this year.

The migration to digital broadcasting is aimed at replacing all the old analogue broadcasting infrastructure while enabling allocation of broader spectrum to deliver broadcasting channels as well as more government services, reporters heard.

According to Ms Matsepe-Casaburri, the migration to digital broadcasting is a result of a resolution taken at a Regional Radio Communications Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where member states committed themselves to migrating to digital platforms by June 2015.

However, South Africa will begin the switch-on of the digital signal in November this year, with the analogue switch-off date scheduled for November 2011, allowing for a three-year “dual-illumination” period, which will facilitate a smooth transition.
Furthermore, as indicated by President Mbeki on Friday, the requisite set-top boxes for digital transmission are to be manufactured locally, thus strengthening South Africa's manufacturing base.

This will revitalise the set-top box manufacturing sector and is expected to create jobs and wider opportunities for small businesses operating in the information and communications technology sector, reporters heard.

Ms Matsepe-Casaburri said work has already begun on this by the Department of Communications, the Department of Trade and Industry and the manufacturing sector.

Furthermore, given South Africa's 11 official languages, the migration to digital broadcasting will open up a number of opportunities for South Africans to develop content for digital free-to-air or pay-television