Category: Regulators

TRAI extends DTH licence period to 20 years

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its recommendations for a new DTH licensing regime today. As part of this, the period of DTH licence has been extended from the current 10 years to 20 years, renewable by 10 years at a time.

The Regulator has said that the existing licence fee will be reduced from 10 per cent of gross revenue to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue, in line with the telecom licences.

Also, the existing DTH licensees will be permitted to migrate to new regime at any time during the currency of the existing licences. Meanwhile, the one time entry fee has been retained at Rs 10 crore.

The salient features of the recommended new DTH licensing regime are as follows:

• The   period   of DTH license to be increased from   10 years to 20 years, renewable by 10 years at a time.

• One time entry fee to be retained at Rs 10 crore.

• Existing license fee to be reduced from 10 per cent of gross revenue (GR) to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in line with the telecom licenses.

• The existing DTH licensees to be permitted to migrate to new regime at any time during the currency of their existing licenses.

• BIS   to   come    out    with    updated    specifications for    STBs in consultation with TRAI which should be complied by DTH licensees.

• The DTH licensees to be mandated to comply with the tariff order scheme prescribed by TRAI for commercial inter-operability.

The salient features of the Recommendation on Cross Holding/Control in the Broadcasting and Distribution Sectors are as follows:

• Policy on Cross-holding/Control to be restructured to bring in uniformity in the broadcasting and distribution sectors.

• Comprehensive definition of ‘control’ to be uniformly adopted in all segments of broadcasting and distribution sectors.

• Relevant market for DTH to be the   entire country and   for MSO /HITS – State.

• Broadcasters and Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) – MSO /HITS and DTH operators to be separate legal entities.

Rationalised and regulated vertical integration to be permitted between broadcasters and DPOs.

• Vertically integrated broadcaster(s) and DPO   to   be   subjected   to additional set of regulations.

•A vertically integrated broadcaster to be permitted to control only one DPO.

• A vertically integrated DPO to be restricted from controlling any other DPO of other category in the relevant market.

• A vertically integrated DPO not to be permitted to acquire more than 33 per cent of the market share in the relevant market.

The additional regulations for a vertically integrated broadcaster to include:

• The   agreements with   the   DPOs   to be non-discriminatory and   on charge-per-subscriber (CPS) basis.

• To file the   Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) for approval by the Authority. All Interconnection Agreements to be only on the terms specified in the RIO.

• To make disclosures as prescribed by the Authority.

The additional regulations for a vertically integrated DPO would include:

• DPO to declare its channel carrying capacity and not to reserve more than 15 per cent of this capacity for its vertically integrated broadcaster(s). Rest of the capacity to be offered to other broadcasters on non¬ discriminatory basis.

• DPO   to   publish the   access fees   for carriage of channels over   its network. The    charging of   the    access fees    should be   on   non discriminatory basis.

• To make disclosures as prescribed by the Authority.

• The   Authority to come   out   with   appropriate Regulations/Orders for the regulatory framework and disclosures after    the   government   takes the   policy decision on the recommendations.

Click here to read the full recommendation paper

July 23, 2014
TRAI extends date for responses on migration to IP-based networks

NEW DELHI: Even as the issue of migration to IP-based networks and requirement of regulatory intervention in IP based interconnection requires urgency, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India today extended time on the request of stakeholders to respond to a Consultation Paper issued by it on 30 June.

Stakeholders have been asked to respond by 19 August with counter-comments if any by 26 August.

The consultation paper wanted the opinion of stakeholders on interconnection requirements for application and content service providers; quality of service issues; and various other operational issues- sharing of network elements, emergency numbering etc.

Traditional telecommunication systems are migrating towards more powerful and viable internet protocol based telecommunication systems. Migration to IP based network will result in co-existence of legacy network along with IP based network. The new IP based network as well as its co-existence with legacy network will give rise to several operational, interconnection and quality of service issues which needs to be addressed for the successful migration to IP based networks.

Full text of the consultation paper is available on TRAI’s website www.trai.gov.in.

July 21, 2014
No ideological apartheid or hate in invitations to media by Prasar Bharati: Javadekar

NEW DELHI: The Government has emphasised that Prasar Bharati is ‘not overshadowed by ideological apartheid or hate.’

Responding to a question, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said recently that Prasar Bharati carries out the public broadcasting services in a fair and objective manner and does not discriminate on the basis of ideologies.

He said in Parliament recently that Prasar Bharati has informed the Ministry that no journalist has been decommissioned or debarred by Doordarshan to curtail their independence.

Prasar Bharati has also said journalists are invited to various programmes according to the requirement of the subject, without any discrimination.

The Minister made it clear that Prasar Bharati was a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament – the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 – and “it is not a state run broadcasting network.”

July 21, 2014
TRAI recommends no change in entry fee for mobile number portability for service providers

NEW DELHI: There should be no change in the entry fee for mobile number portability (MNP) service providers for implementing Full Mobile Number Portability, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said today.

It also said the Performance Bank Guarantee and Financial Bank Guarantee for the MNP service providers should be continued according to the existing licence conditions.

The recommendations were made in response to the Department of Telecom on additional entry fee, Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) and Financial Bank Guarantee (FBG) to be charged from the existing Mobile Number Portability licensees for enhancement of scope of their licence.

In accordance with the provisions contained in the National Telecom Policy 2012 regarding “One Nation- Full Mobile Number Portability,” TRAI received a reference from the DoT on 27 December 2012, seeking the recommendations of TRAI for implementing full Mobile Number Portability across the country.

After consultation with the stakeholders and examination of various issues, TRAI had given its recommendations on ‘Full Mobile Number Portability’ to the Department on 25 September 2013.

On 2 July this year, the DoT conveyed the acceptance of the said recommendations and requested TRAI to give its opinion for additional entry fee, PBG and FBG to be charged from the existing Mobile Number Portability licensees for enhancement of scope of their license.

The issues indicated in the DoT’s reference have been examined by the Authority and response to the said issues has been finalised.

July 21, 2014
TRAI permits sharing of spectrum in same band

NEW DELHI: Considering that spectrum sharing results in better spectral efficiency, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today said all access spectrum in the bands of 800/900/1800/2100/ 2300/2500 MHz will be sharable provided that both the licensees are having spectrum in the same band.

A portion of additional capacity created needs to be counted for the purpose of applying the prescribed spectrum caps of 25 per cent of total spectrum assigned and 50 per cent in a band. For the limited purpose of applying the prescribed market caps, 50 per cent of the spectrum held by the other licencee in the band being shared shall be counted as the additional spectrum being held by the licensee.

Considering the fact that sharing results in additional quantity of spectrum with both the licensees to serve higher number of consumers, the SUC rate of each of the licensees post-sharing shall increase by 0.5 per cent of AGR.

Both the licensees, willing to share their spectrum, shall inform the licensor at the time of entering into spectrum sharing agreement.

The TRAI recommendations on ‘Guidelines on Spectrum Sharing’ were issued after it constituted a Steering Committee consisting of senior officers of TRAI and representatives of all the TSPs to frame the guidelines for spectrum sharing in February this year.

On the basis of deliberations in the Steering Committee and its own analysis, the Authority has finalised its recommendations on ‘Guidelines on Spectrum Sharing’.

Spectrum sharing refers to an arrangement between two access licensees (CMTS/UASL/UL (AS)/UL) where both licensees having access spectrum in the same band, pool their respective spectrum in the same Licence Service Area (LSA) for their simultaneous use, using a common Radio Access Network (RAN). The shared RAN will be connected to the core networks of each of the licensee. Both the licensees will continue to hold their primary right over their own spectrum.

The basic objective of spectrum sharing is to provide an opportunity to the TSPs to pool their spectrum holdings and gain the better spectral efficiency. Spectrum sharing would involve both the service providers utilising the spectrum. Leasing of spectrum is not permitted.

At present, there are many licensees having administratively assigned spectrum in the 800 MHz 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band. If any one of the two licensees, sharing their spectrum, has administratively assigned spectrum in that band, then after sharing, they will be permitted to provide only those services which can be provided through administratively held spectrum.

If both the licensees are sharing that spectrum which has either been assigned through an auction in the year 2010 or afterwards, or on which the licensee has already paid the prescribed market value (as decided by the Government from time to time) to the Government, they can offer services using all those technologies (namely GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE etc.), which they can independently provide through their own spectrum holding.

Spectrum sharing results in better spectral efficiency, TRAI said.

The recommendations on ‘Guidelines on Spectrum Sharing’ are available TRAI’s website www.trai.gov.in.

July 21, 2014
Govt denies any plans to reduce DAVP allocations

NEW DELHI: The Government has denied that there is any move to drastically cut the budget of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).

In fact, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the publicity budget of DAVP has shown an increasing trend since 2009-10 onwards.

While the actual plan and non-plan DAVP expenditure for 2010-11 was Rs 90.92 crore, it was Rs 127.72 crore in 2011-12, Rs 139.75 crore in 2012-13, and Rs 222.47 crore for 2013-14.

The allocation of budget for advertisement and publicity of the schemes/programmes of an individual Ministry/Department is allotted by Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance, the Minister told Parliament.

Therefore, Javadekar said this Ministry cannot put any embargo on Ministries / Departments /Autonomous Bodies / Constitutional Bodies, etc. resorting to advertising.

In response to another question, the Minister said the money spent on electronic media and print media during 2013-14 was Rs 500.35 crore and Rs 446.68 crore, respectively. During 2012-13, the money spent on electronic media and print media was Rs 198.30 crore and Rs 404.38 crore, respectively.

July 18, 2014
Two open house meetings every month to speed channel licence clearance

NEW DELHI: The new government at the centre certainly seems to be taking the issue of channel licence clearance very seriously. To clear the long list of pending applications for new TV channels, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has decided to hold open house meeting with stakeholders twice a month, as against the earlier practice of one meeting a month.

The next meeting is slated for 18 July in Shastri Bhavan, the main office of the Ministry. Stakeholders have been asked to send, in advance, the information they require, so that these can be supplied to them at the meeting.

It is understood that almost a hundred applications are pending for clearance at various stages either with the I&B Ministry, Home Ministry or the Department of Telecom.

Furthermore, the coming into force of the code of conduct in April this year prevented clearance of any new channels and therefore the number of channels which was 795 at the end of May remained the same at the end of June.

A large number of new applications including those by Media Content and Communications Services (MCCS) that runs the ABP group of channels, Star India for its second Tamil channel, and Epic TV are pending.

The only change was that the number of news and current affairs channels went up by two to 395 and the number of non news and current affairs channels came down by the same number to 400.

The first four months of 2014 saw licences being given to nine channels including AXN HD and SET HD.

The Ministry also placed on its website the names of the companies which own these channels, the language, and the date when permission was granted.

July 17, 2014
PHD Chamber to join hands with I&B Ministry to launch campaign about piracy

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar today welcomed the initiative taken by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry to launch a joint campaign to create awareness about video and software piracy.

The Minister was responding to an offer by the Chamber whose Media and Entertainment Committee members met today.

While they thanked the Minister for removing service tax from television advertising, they said the music and film industry was facing a major problem because of illegal piracy.

The delegation offered its services for an awareness campaign in this regard among general public through conferences, awareness campaigns and painting competitions among school children.

The delegation was led by Chamber president Sharad Jaipuria with vice presidents Alok Sri Ram and Media and Entertainment Committee chairman Mukesh Gupta, ED Saurabh Sanyal and senior secretary Yogesh Srivastava.

July 16, 2014
Over Rs 400 crore spent on Bharat Nirman campaign in three years

NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) spent a total amount of Rs 411.91 crore between 2011-12 and 2014-15 through the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to publicise Bharat Nirmal programmes.

The amount spent in 2014-15 was only Rs 32.23 crore as against Rs 188.88 crore for the previous year. The amount spent in 2011-12 was Rs 87.78 crore and that in 2012-13 was Rs 103.02 crore.

I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar told the Lok Sabha today that there was no plan at present to undertake any campaign under the umbrella of Bharat Nirman.

The promotion through I&B Ministry was part of the media outreach strategy under the plan sub-scheme titled “People’s Empowerment through Development Communication Conception and Dissemination” by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.

While a sum of Rs 48 crore was spent covering 6444 newspapers and Rs 96.19 crore was spent on 125 television channels in 2013-14, no campaign was launched in 2014-15 as the Model Conduct had come into force in view of the General Elections in May.

I&B Ministry sources said that the amount of Rs 32.23 crore for 2014-15 related to old bills.

July 16, 2014
TRAI amends tariff order for commercial subscribers

MUMBAI: After having invited comments from stakeholders regarding the imposition of tariff on commercial subscribers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has come out with the amendment to the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Second) Tariff Order, 2004 (6 of 2004).

The twelfth amendment will come into effect from the date of its publication in the official gazette.

Going with the 24 responses to the earlier consultation pepper, there is no distinction between an ordinary and a commercial subscriber. The definition of a ‘commercial establishment’ (CE) has been included and ‘commercial subscriber’ (CS) has been amended.

Accordingly, the new definition of a CE is “any premises wherein any trade, business or any work in connection with, or incidental or ancillary thereto, is carried on and includes a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860), and charitable or other trust, whether registered or not, which carries on any business, trade or work in connection with, or incidental or ancillary thereto, journalistic, printing and publishing establishments, educational, healthcare or other institutions run for private gain, theatres, cinemas, restaurants, eating houses, pubs, bars, residential hotels, malls, airport lounges, clubs or other places of public amusements or entertainment”.

The definition of a CS is “any person who receives broadcasting services or cable services at a place indicated by him to a cable operator or multi system operator or direct to home operator or head end in the sky operator or Internet Protocol television service provider, as the case may be, and uses such services for the benefit of his clients, customers, members or any other class or group of persons having access to his commercial establishment.”

Abiding by a recent Supreme Court verdict, TRAI has stated that in the rates of TV services, there should be no differentiation between an ordinary subscriber and a commercial subscriber and the charges for both should be per TV set basis. This is applicable when the establishment does not specifically charge the customer for the service. In case, it does, then the broadcaster and the CS can mutually agree on the tariff.

A broadcaster cannot directly supply signals to the CS just as the same isn’t done for an ordinary subscriber. The CS can obtain signals only from a distribution platform operator such as MSO, DTH operator, cable operator, IPTV operator or a HITS operator. This is in line with the rule regarding downlinking of TV channels in India, which states that an applicant company can provide decoders only to registered distribution platforms.

This would also ensure competition to be healthy.

The point regarding sub categorisation of commercial subscribers into similarly-placed groups has been dismissed with only one distinction of those who provide it as part of their amenities to guests and those who don’t.

The regulator expects that with this amendment, the distribution of TV services to commercial subscribers will be streamlined and the services would be available at competitive rates.

Click here for the ammendment

Click here for the press release

July 16, 2014