As the deadline for switching from Analogue to Digital broadcasting moves closer, Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) has licensed 15 firms to import, sale and distribute Free-to-Air (FTA) Set Top Boxes.
The firms include Brivid Uganda Ltd, Widestar Digital (U) Ltd, Mac Viva Global Holdings Ltd, BIT Technologies (U) Ltd, Future Electronics (U) Ltd, Icomsys Africa Ltd, eWorld Technologies Limited.
Others are;
- Kagadi Technical Services
- Visual Consult Uganda Ltd
- Roise de Classe (U) Ltd
- Trans-African Container
- Space Digital Technology Ltd
- Green PowerSolutions
- URI Trading Company.
According to UCC Media Relations Specialist, Isaac Kalembe, the Commission provided space to these operators at Communications House (Ground Floor) to sell their Set Top Boxes (STB) but only three companies – Brevid, Mac Viva and e-World have taken up the offer.
Having a Free to Air set top box means that there are no monthly subscriptions, there is only one time pay at time of purchase of the set top box and one can receive all the Free to Air channels; the channels being watched now on analogue TV before the digital migration.
The process of switching off the analogue signal in Uganda is expected to be complete by June 10th 2015. After that, all TV viewers in Uganda will need to have a set-top-box (STB) for every analogue TV or use a digital TV in order to receive television services.
UCC STB Vendors List – May 13, 2015