[kictanet] Digital TV signal Distribution row- at Kenya IGF

[aki]

I'd like to share some comments, am not a broadcaster, nor economist but as
someone in technology.... :-)

It is great to see that portions of govt is looking at the future, and the
efforts are appreciated quite much. I think that IPTV exceeding DVBT in
developing countries may not happen for a long time because am not sure how
many or if any at all xDSL networks we are rolling out. Telkom/Orange would
have been leaders in web content over adsl but we are not seeing that yet.
IPTV will become a success in urban cities where the infrastructure can
sustain such technologies but rural areas will be left out. There are
emerging trends within DVBT towards interactive TV, internet access and
return via wifi-3g-gsm-cable but these are so far not well established. DVBT
a growing industry, and I believe IPTV success is over copper/fiber at
around 24Mbits. However, I'm not sure why for example zukuTV have not
started using the DVBT Signet platform or a hybrid to push paytv content and
utilize the platform for future ip enabled applications. Cable infrastruture
is an expensive network to support, maintain. I believe DVBT is just the
beginning of what one single set-top box will bring to many houses in terms
of services. For developing countries, I'd definately put DVBT as the
future.



On FDI, and this is why I believe that developing govts or those within
govt are not the problem but the system is. Whether this govt or the next or
the one after, they will still have to make the system work. When we start
getting rated with FDI at 100% international ownership and this becomes the
standard across developing countries, then we are definately loosing out as
far as FDI goes and foreign investors may not see kenya as a viable choice
if we don't accept the standard. FDI brings its large benefits too to the
economy ( direct employment, newer technologies, competition and diversity
) but the problem is that we learnt what the cold war did with diverse
interests, including creating civil wars that aimlessly left many developing
countries in shambles and extremely poor too. We will need to try and find a
balance for future generations between the system and our long term goals.
We need to ensure that while we have not done the things we should have to
be on par with many countries, we also look at addressing the potential
growth in kenyans hands. However, and I can understand Bwana
Ndemo's frustration on the FDI issue, the same can be said about an article
that I read in the dailies when Safaricom share value was going downwards a
few months ago, most of the those who invested at that time were
international investors. Kenyans should have used the opportunity to own
more but did not. This seems is a reflection of what polices and the
system over many decades has done to the confidence of kenyans owning Kenya.
Possibly an economist will be able to better share their view on how a
balance between FDI and an internal growth can change minds.

Thank you, corrections are very welcome.

Rgds.
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