Since the beginning of April, people in the remote parts of the country, who rely on Direct-to-Home, DTH, satellite television reception, have not been able to watch the Bhutan Broadcasting Service’s news and entertainment programmes. Modulator failure at the GovTech Agency’s South Asia Satellite Ground Station in Thimphu has led to the signal outage. Modulators convert digital signals into the appropriate format for transmission over satellite links.
All three BBS channel feeds are uplinked and distributed to nooks and corners of the country via the South Asia Satellite, which is a gift from India to its neighbouring countries.
The signal outage is because of the failure of both modulators, including the spare, for the South Asia Satellite Ground Station has irked rural residents, whose only source of news and entertainment is the BBS channels.
“It used to work before but now it has been more than a month since it stopped working. I am not sure how we are supposed to fix this. It is not only mine, but it is not working in other places as well. We are bored and disappointed, and we hope this can be fixed as soon as possible,” said Jigme Wangchuk, a resident of Phongmey Gewog.
“Without BBS channel, I feel like I have lost something. I do not feel good. With BBS, we get information and that is how we know about the situations going around us. We will be thankful if the problem is fixed soon,” said Singey Zangmo, a resident of Yalang, Shumar Gewog.
The DTH dish receives BBS channels and hundreds of free-to-air Indian channels.
“We must play with the signal. All the channels do not come in one signal. When we put it on the BBS channel, other Indian channels do not work. When we put on Indian channels, BBS channel does not come,” said Lakshman Darjay, a resident of Gelephu, Sarpang.
“I watch the news every night. I do not get time to watch during the day. The BBS channel does not come at all. We will be thankful if the problem is solved soon,” said Dechen Zangmo, a resident of Khotakpa, Shumar Gewog.
As an interim measure, since the 4th of April, the GovTech Agency has uplinked the BBS 2 channel from the South Asia Satellite’s Ground Station in New Delhi, India.
According to an official from the GovTech Agency, priority has been given to BBS channel 2 since both news and entertainment programmes are aired on it. People are advised to retune their set-top box to receive BBS channel 2.
The GovTech Agency is in the process of procuring the modulator and is expecting to restore service in one and a half months.
The GovTech official said that the agency does not have a dedicated budget to procure a modulator, which costs around 1.5-million-ngultrum. The official added that the modulator must be procured from a French company.
According to the official, the two modulators, which malfunctioned, had manufacturing defects.
Tsheyang Tshogyal (Intern)
Edited by Sherub Dorji
