NCA warns of fake decoders flooding the market

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August 21, 2016 3:44 PM

There has been a sharp increase in demand of decoders and digital television sets as Ghana’s deadline for migration to digital transmission draws closer.

The National Communications Authority has warned of an influx of fake Digital Terrestrial Television receiver, also known as decoders, on the market.

However, the NCA says a large number of the set top boxes on the market fail to meet certified standards, and consequently will not function when the country fully migrates to digital broadcasting.

The following are the decoder that have been identified by the NCA as short of certified standards:

Mac Sunny, Open Box, Free Sat, TuchnoSat, Odaimond Star, J-Star, Vidbox, Combo and DigiSat The Authority has a mandate under Section 66 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008, Act 775 to certify terminal equipment of public electronic communications network.

Director for Engineering at the NCA, Henry Kanor, said it is important that dealers and importers comply to protect users with regards to environmental health and safety standards including electromagnetic radiation and emissions.

“Our checks on the market reveal that there are companies in Nigeria and elsewhere who try to flood our market with those products and we realise that it’s only through education that our fellow countrymen will know that when you buy such boxes you buy it at your own peril because our test on these boxes have shown that they don’t meet the standard in the country and will not even last. This is also because they do not conform to the regime that we have in Ghana.”

Mr. Kanor in an interview with Accra-based Citi Fm said, the Authority may regulate, prohibit the sale or other distribution or connection of terminal equipment or other device that is provided in the country primarily for the purposes of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention.

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