Gokwe North set to get full satellite services

GOVERNMENT is set to combine terrestrial and satellite services to ensure Nembudziya District in Gokwe North starts receiving 100 percent coverage.

Nembudziya District has not been receiving telecommunication and broadcasting services and this challenge has been there even before independence.

The decision to combine terrestrial and satellite services was reached after the realisation that two transmitters (satellite) in Gokwe North were not adequate to cover the entire district.

One transmitter has since been erected in Sengwa area and covers parts of the district while the complementing one will be erected at Nyamuroro Mountain in Nembudziya.

In an interview at the site of the proposed new transmitter at Nyamuroro Mountain in Nembudziya, Gokwe North,  Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Secretary, Mr George Charamba, said for the first time in the history of broadcasting, terrestrial and satellite services will be combined in Gokwe North.

He said that would result in the district achieving 100 percent coverage of telecommunication and broadcasting services.

"This place (site) arose out of the discussion we had with the leadership of the area that they don't have any coverage in terms of radio or television coverage. We thought, planning from Harare from our desks, that we had the whole of Gokwe area covered by way of services; we didn't take into account other existing sites like Gokwe North, Nembudziya District which is in a shadow area. And thanks to the leadership of this area, who were persistent, we have realised that this area is in the shadow," said Mr Charamba.

The Permanent Secretary added, "We went to the drawing board, used our simulators only to discover that indeed Gokwe Nembudziya was in the shadow. I got more than I bargained for when I realised that there is a lot of economic activity here. We have a ginnery running 24/7 and yet they are in the shadow. So we are going to combine terrestrial and satellite services to achieve 100 percent coverage for Gokwe Nembudziya."

He said Gokwe Nembudziya will become the first district in the country to have both terrestrial and satellite services for broadcasting services.

Mr Charamba said engineers had been to the proposed site to erect the second transmitter adding that the entire Gokwe Nembudziya will receive total coverage.

"This district which was an orphan of the country will be the first born of the combined services, this also shows that the template that the country has been using was defective," he said.

Mr Charamba who also visited Sengwa area to assess progress at the transmission site which has just been completed said, "This is a good day because Sengwa tower is now done."

When he visited the site last month, the tower had not been completed with the contractors said to be back in Zambia.

Although he said he is happy with the progress made so far on the digitalisation programme, the non payment of $29million to the contractor, Huawei, is dampening the drive which the programme had started with.

He said the contractor had frozen out the country because of the debt.

"It decided to freeze us out. We have exhausted their goodwill and now nothing short of realising new money to Huawei would give the project the momentum required to complete it.

"There is still a glimmer of hope as the relevant ministries are working on ways to pay the outstanding money," he said.