A technical glitch connecting a satellite uplink station in Slovenia caused significant downtime for StarSat viewers on Monday and into Tuesday, but the company is confident the problem has now been rectified.
StarSat spokesman Eddie Mbalo, who is also spokesman for parent company On Digital Media, says the distance between the pay-television broadcaster’s head office in Johannesburg and the location of the fault meant it took some time for the problem to be resolved.
“Everything is working fine again. Of course, we are monitoring the situation and will ensure we continue to provide customers with quality service,” Mbalo tells TechCentral.
According to Mbalo, not all of StarSat’s channels were affected, though some customers reported having no service.
On Tuesday, StarSat subscribers called TechCentral complaining that they have not been able to contact the company through its call centre or through e-mail.
In an SMS sent to clients on Tuesday, the company said: “StarSat apologises for signal loss due to a technical problem from our supplier. Our technical team is urgently working on the problem.”
Starsat is controlled by Chinese satellite television provider StarTimes. It was previously known as TopTV.
It was the only one of five subscription satellite services licensed by communications regulator Icasa late last decade to launch commercial services in competition with pay-TV incumbent MultiChoice. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media
