Telecom Lead India: The ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday said 38 cities have achieved over 85 percent of digitization.
During Phase II of the digitization process, 15 cities have achieved nearly 100 percent, 24 cities have achieved more than 75 percent and 34 cities have achieved more than 50 percent Digitization.
Against a target of 160 lakh Set Top Boxes (STBs), 136 lakh STBs have already been installed by the multi system operators (MSOs) and Direct to Home (DTH) Operators.
Number of installed cable TV STBs stands at 91.5 lakh whereas DTH operators have installed 44.5 lakhs STBs.
March 31, 2013 was the deadline to complete digitization in 38 cities.
High Courts have given stay orders in three states — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat — on the switch off of the analogue signals till further orders.
In Phase II cities, about users installed 40 lakh STBs in the last one month alone.
Meanwhile, Indian telecom regulator TRAI has released draft tariff orders prescribing standard tariff package (STP) for STBs for Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems (DAS) and Consumer Premises Equipments (CPEs) for Direct to Home (DTH) services for seeking comments of the stakeholders.
In Digital Addressable Systems, customers need a STB/ CPE to be connected with the TV set for reception of TV programmes as signal transmission is in digital and encrypted form.
Since different technologies co-exist, within as well as across different platforms of Digital Addressable Systems, the STBs/CPEs deployed by one operator may not be fully compatible with the network of another operator, hampering effective migration of the customer from one service provider to another.
To protect the interests of the consumers TRAI decided to prescribe Standard Tariff Packages for STB/CPE on rental basis, which are to be mandatorily offered by the service providers i.e. DTH and cable operators. This scheme envisages payment of a security deposit and monthly rental. The service providers are free to offer other tariff packages over and above this.
Picture source: 123rf.com
