Botswana's government has refuted claims that its choice to use Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial (ISDB-T) as a migration standard could spell disaster for the country.

Mogomotsi Kaboyamodimo, deputy permanent secretary in the office of the president, has dismissed the notions that Botswana is going the wrong way.

"A standard is only a technical platform for delivering communications and all the ITU approved standards are capable of doing so.

The choice of a standard depends on a country's priorities with respect to services it wants to offer," said Kaboyamodimo.

He said SADC countries agreed in 2010 that members were free to choose any standard different from the recommended DVB-T2.

Kaboyamodimo further said different regions and countries use different digital migration standards, as they did for analogue television transmission.

Japan and Botswana have already sealed a deal for the implementation of the project and developed an implementation plan, which includes coordinated frequencies with all its neighbours, and training on data broadcasting for various stakeholders with ISDB-T equipment expected to be delivered before end of May 2015.

Kaboyamodimo highlighted that Botswana's choice stems from a business modeling debate, largely relating to the manufacturing and sourcing of equipment and other devices.

"Manufacturers are not bound to one standard or another, they simply supply to customer requests.

Botswana satellite services will not be affected in any way and so there is no question of isolation in terms of Botswana not being able to communicate with the rest of the world or content and technologies from elsewhere failing to work in Botswana," Kaboyamodimo said

The Southern African country is upbeat about its progress and believes other countries could struggle to meet the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) June deadline.

"SADC countries are deploying different standards being DVB-T; DVB-T2 and DVB-T2 Lite and countries are at different stages of digital migration.