Rwanda’s government plans to make its decision on the final deadline for the switch from analogue to digital transmission soon, according to officials.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana, minister of Youth and ICT in that country, said the deadline for the East African Community (EAC) countries to switch from analogue broadcasting is nearing and Rwanda was in its final stages of whether it would make the big switch.

"The strategy to meet the EAC target is under consideration and expected to be approved by the cabinet soon,” Nsengimana explained.

In January, the public broadcaster, Orinfor, said it was set to start broadcasting digital content in March 2012 - ahead of the December 31 deadline set for EAC countries to have switched to digital broadcasting.

The public broadcaster missed out on its initial deadline owing to delays in identifying a “competent” supplier for devices to convert analogue images to digital ones. However, since they have procured the necessary equipment, it plans to soon switch off its analogue transmission.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) set 2015 as the global deadline for switching from analogue to digital broadcasting, which uses rare frequency resource efficiency while allowing the introduction of additional services such as high definition television and pay TV on standard TV.