The transition will be carried out by geographic zones. Photo: Freddy Pérez Cabrera

As of September, Cuba's western provinces will begin the partial transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT), informed Mayra Arevich, Minister of Communications (Mincom) to Granma.

This will entail the analog signals of Educativo and Educativo 2 channels will be switched off, although the most popular channels (Cubavisión, Multivisión and Tele Rebelde) will continue to be visible through this channel, and the population will be able to enjoy them even if they do not have a digital set-top box.

The process will begin in Pinar del Río, according to Arevich, because it has been decided to carry out the transition by geographical zones and, within this range, by provinces and areas of coverage of the transmitters. In this way, the change will not be so abrupt and gives the possibility of having a greater feedback of the population's concerns, which may arise during the process.

Initially, she recalled, this program was conceived to run for ten years, from 2013 to 2023, but as a result of the financial difficulties in acquiring the receiving equipment, a situation made more complex by the effects of the U.S. government's blockade, it has been necessary to redesign the project for its deployment.

In the case of the attention to the assisted nuclei, she emphasized that the program protects those who have been so determined by specialists of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. In this way, he said, more than 49,000 reception modules have been installed in the west, consisting of the decoder box, the cables with their connectors and the antenna, the cost of which was assumed by the State Budget.
The continuity of the teaching-educational process has been guaranteed and, to this end, 19,800 hybrid televisions were acquired for the teleclasses.

With respect to the commercialization of the receiving equipment, she pointed out that since the program began in 2013, a total of more than three million have been sold, with an annual average exceeding 100 000. However, she acknowledged, this year has been a little less, around 61 151, due to the economic and financing problems themselves.

Currently, the population coverage of digital television in standard signal (SD) is 76.23%, and in high definition (HD), 45.7%.

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