Europe, Asia, race for Zambia’s digital migration tender

ZAMBIA

By Edith Mwale, Lusaka, Zambia

As Zambia prepares to migrate to digital, European and Asian companies are racing for the tender with Ericsson being the latest to join the race.

Ericsson has become the second company after Huawei Technologies to sponsor senior Zambian government officials to Europe to discuss the possibility of being given the digital migration tender.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Permanent Secretary Amos Malupenga was leading the Zambian delegation to Sweden last week at the invitation of Proximity media, a company which works in partnership with Ericsson.

Mulupenga said, however, that the Zambian government has not yet chosen the company that will migrate the country because he said, “the process for digital migration has to be advertised in order to promote transparency.”

Ericsson Compression Solutions vice-president Tom Boyd said engaging clients in measuring the performance of the institution’s operations in the provision of telecom services is key to promoting value addition.

Boyd said Ericsson has interviewed more than 80,000 clients to promote and maintain quality service for improved performance.

Boyd also said through research, Ericsson provides quality technology for its clients. In Zambia, Ericsson began its operations in the 60s.

Zambia’s target is to migrate from analogue to digital television by 31 December 2013 and to switch off all analogue television transmission by the same date in 2014 ahead of the ITU deadline.