24. Gwanda DTT ready 25. Binga New tower has been constructed. No DTT equipment installed as yet but FM transmitters have been installed and radio services are available in and around the area 26. Hwange New tower has been constructed. No equipment has been installed as yet at the site. 27. Thsolotsho New tower still under construction 28. Chiredzi Site equipped with DTT equipment and ready . Transmission tower has been constructed and has 29. Chikombedzi not been equipped with DTT equipment yet. Only FM services have been introduced Zimbabwean transmission network plan has 48 transmitter sites to cover the whole country, 24 backbone sites and 24 gap fillers. Seventeen backbone sites have already been equipped with DTT equipment and are ready to transmit digital signals. New towers have been constructed and completed at eight gap filler sites. At this stage, dual illumination should have been introduced in some of the TV coverage areas so as to stimulate TV viewers to acquire STBs. A portion of the USD40 million spent on the project to date should have been ploughed into STB acquisitions because STBs are central to DTT migration success. A further USD 103 million is required to complete the DTT migration for outstanding work in the following areas: 02 • Studios • • Transmission equipment Tower construction at gap filler sites • Tower reconstruction of some old towers • STBs • Content generation support • Public awareness STB requirements and distribution in Zimbabwe The DTT project coordinators requested 400 000 STBs to be procured for the project at a cost of USD 18 million in 2015 and no funds have been availed this far. There is no policy yet on the STB distribution yet it central to the DTT migration success. There must be positions or policies on the following issues. Technical specifications of the STBs and integrated digital TV sets (IDTVs) cost of the STB and antenna set • Who will do the distribution of the STBs • Who will do the STB installations and servicing • • What will be the nature and scope of subsidy if any At what point of DTT penetration in the coverage areas do you switch off the analogue services The 400 000 STBs requested is far less than the projected requirement given the number of TV households in the country. Zimbabwe has a population of about 14 million and about million households. According to the ICT 2014 survey 40% of the households have TV sets translating to more than 1.24 million TV sets in the country. 7