K-Net: Providing Services to Broadcasters Using DTH and DTT Networks in Ghana

Oscar Nichor, Chief Operations Officer (TV Broadcast) at K-Net, talks about the company’s experience in building Ghana’s DTT network. At the time, K-Net had already been providing services to broadcasters using a DTH platform.

“It has been a very winding road, but we are proud of what we have been able to do. Given the fact that the whole process started in 2010, from the first tender that was advertised, responses came from companies outside of Africa. After about four years, nothing followed. Meanwhile, migration was a timebound event given by the International Telecommunication Union. The migration process was set to end June 17, 2015, but getting close to that deadline, Ghana was still in doubt as to when it would even start. So, a decision was made to invite new tenders and redefine the process, making it a must for whoever won the contract to work within an earlier timeframe than the previous one. By this time, K-Net had also tested itself because it had been providing services to broadcasters using a DTH (direct to home) platform that was able to give capacity for their program distribution. The national broadcaster for example, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, had 30 sites in the country and they were linked or hooked up to the studio output using a satellite capacity that was provided by K-Net. Soon, others followed. K-Net already had experience in serving the broadcasters in the analog regime, so why not extend it into the digital regime. So, K-Net looked at the other request for proposals and thought that this was something that we could do. Other manufacturers and companies outside of Ghana also bid. It has not been an easy path, but our offer was very good. For example, there are a lot of things that were not even in the RFP (request for proposal) but that we made offers on, such as the advice on some financial strategies that could help. Eventually, this was the model that was used and it was an idea that came from K-Net. Now, our involvement as a local company has been very helpful in making Ghana move forward. We are here and in close proximity. It has not been easy, though. In terms of stability, there are a lot of changes during the migration period. If there is one administration at the processing stage and then a new administration comes in, then it wants to understand what is going and things have to start all over again. But, because of our proximity, there was always a very quick invitation, we came in for a meeting, asked what can we do, showed where we are, they gave us a briefing, etc. It would not have been the same with a foreign company at all. We have also been very patient. There are a lot of things that we were called to do on very short notice and we had to mobilize our own resources to get certain things done. I would not say that it has been an easy road because of the instability, but the achievement is there for everyone to see and we are proud of it”, says Oscar Nichor.

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