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Tag: Trai

  • TRAI asks pay broadcasters to revise wholesale tariff, even as matter pending in SC

    TRAI asks pay broadcasters to revise wholesale tariff, even as matter pending in SC

    NEW DELHI: Fifty-four pay broadcasters were today asked by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to revise their wholesale tariff for the non-CAS (Conditional Access System) and DAS (Digital Addressable System) areas to what existed before the coming into force of the two tariff orders that have been set aside by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Settlement Tribunal (TDSAT).

     

    TRAI, which also met some of the broadcasters in a meeting today, said the revised tariff should be filed with the Authority within 10 days from the date of receipt of the letter.

     

    The TDSAT order had been challenged before the Supreme Court, which on 16 May declined to stay the order setting aside the amendments in two tariff orders, which had sought to put an inflation-linked hike of 27.5 per cent on addressable and non-addressable systems.

     

    TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh said in their order of 28 April that the ‘The Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Eleventh Amendment) Order, 2014’ and ‘The Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Thirteenth Amendment) Order, 2014]’ were “untenable.”

     

    The Tribunal also said it thought that TRAI “will be well advised to have a fresh look at the various tariff orders in a holistic manner and come out with a comprehensive tariff order in supersession of all the earlier tariff orders.”

     

    In its letter placed on its website, TRAI said that the increase of 27.5 per cent in non-addressable systems had led to a similar increase in addressable systems in accordance with the provisions of the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Fourth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order of 21 July, 2010.

     

    TRAI in the Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Eleventh Amendment) Order of 31 March, 2014 allowed an inflationary increase of 15 per cent in the wholesale prices for non-addressable systems over the prices prevailing as on 31 March, 2014 to be effective from 1 April, 2014 and 12.5 per cent with effect from January 2015 under the Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Thirteenth Amendment) Order of 31 December, 2014. 

  • TRAI publishes handbook on broadcasting & cable services to protect consumers’ interests

    TRAI publishes handbook on broadcasting & cable services to protect consumers’ interests

    NEW DELHI: With just five months left for completion of Phase III of Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) for cable TV, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has received several queries about the broadcasting and cable TV sector.

     

    Aiming to answer as many of these queries, TRAI has brought a booklet on Frequently Asked Questions with the aim of protecting consumers’ interests and recognising that consumers and consumer organisations must be empowered with knowledge and awareness of the comprehensive regulatory measures laid down by it for Broadcasting and Cable TV services.  

     

    The ‘FAQs on Broadcasting and Cable TV Services’ booklet is in simple and consumer friendly language to enable easy understanding. 

     

    It provides consumers with a gist of the relevant regulations and orders pertaining to Broadcasting and Cable TV services. Salient aspects that are covered in this handbook include procedures for connection, disconnection, transfer, shifting, complaint registration and billing.  

     

    In a press note, TRAI noted that consumer awareness was one of its primary tasks and the handbook was aimed at fulfilling this mandate. 

     

    TRAI has, from time to time issued Regulations, Directions and Orders on consumer protection, complaint redressal systems, Quality of Service (QoS), tariffs and billing.

     

    TRAI’s endeavour is to facilitate the availability of affordable Broadcasting and Cable TV services while ensuring that the quality that is provided by the service providers to the consumers is satisfactory.

  • Post TDSAT order, TRAI issues fresh paper on tariff for commercial subscribers

    Post TDSAT order, TRAI issues fresh paper on tariff for commercial subscribers

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked commercial subscribers whether there is need to define and differentiate between domestic subscribers and commercial subscribers for provision of TV signals and the basis for such classification.

     

    In a paper on “Tariff issues related to Commercial Subscribers”, the regulator has also asked if there is a need to enable engagement of broadcasters in the determination of retail tariffs for commercial subscribers on a case-to-case basis.

     

    The paper has been issued following the directions by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (TDSAT) earlier this year that there was need for a fresh look at tariff orders. Stakeholders have been asked to give their comments by 31 July and counter-comments by 7 August.

     

    TRAI has sought information on how it can be ensured that TV signal feed is not misused for commercial purposes wherein the signal has been provided for non-commercial purpose. 

     

    It has also asked if there is a need to have a different tariff framework for commercial subscribers (both at wholesale and retail levels) and what should be the suggested tariff framework for commercial subscribers (both at wholesale and retail levels).

     

    It wants to know if the present framework is adequate to ensure transparency and accountability in the value chain to effectively minimise disputes and conflicts among stakeholders, and what should the practical and implementable mechanism be to ensure transparency and accountability in the value chain. 

     

    Following the Supreme Court’s order of 16 April, 2014, TRAI had notified the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Second) tariff (Twelfth   Amendment) order & the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Fourth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff (Fourth Amendment) order on 16 July, 2014. These two tariff amendment orders prescribing the tariff framework for commercial subscribers were challenged before TDSAT, which in its order of 9 March, 2015 had set aside these Tariff Amendment Orders. TRAI was asked to examine the issue afresh and come out with a new tariff dispensation for commercial subscribers within six months from the date of its order.

  • Mobiles boost broadband usage by 4.17% during May

    Mobiles boost broadband usage by 4.17% during May

    NEW DELHI: Mobile users helped give a spurt to broadband usage in the country to touch 104.96 million by the end of May, which signified a monthly growth rate of 4.17 per cent.

     

    It may be recalled that in April this year the broadband users in the country crossed the 100 million mark for the first time.

     

    Mobile devices users (phones and dongles) went up from 84.79 million to 88.96 million between April and May, signifying an increase of 4.91 per cent.

     

    However, Fixed Wireless subscribers (Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point to Point Radio and VSAT) showed a minor decline of 0.17 per cent thus remaining at just over 440,000 users.

     

    Wired subscribers went up from 15.52 million to 15.56 million, showing an increase of 0.23 per cent.

     

    Based on reports received from the service providers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said the top five service providers constituted 83.75 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers at the end of May.

     

    These service providers were Bharti Airtel (23.39 million), Vodafone (21.27 million), BSNL (18.50 million), Idea Cellular Ltd (15.76 million) and Reliance Communications Group (8.99 million).

     

    The regulator noted that some wireless service providers exclude incidental data users from their subscriber base, based on minimum usage decided by them.

     

    As on 31 May, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.90 million), Bharti Airtel (1.45 million), MTNL (1.14 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (0.66 million) and YOU Broadband (0.45 million).

     

    The top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Bharti Airtel (21.93 million), Vodafone (21.27 million), Idea Cellular (15.76 million), Reliance Communications Group (8.88 million) and BSNL (8.59 million).

  • TRAI to resolve disputes between MSOs & broadcasters on interconnect agreements

    TRAI to resolve disputes between MSOs & broadcasters on interconnect agreements

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is holding a meeting on 14 July to resolve any issues between broadcasters and multi system operators (MSOs) relating to interconnect agreements.

     

    The Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) has asked all broadcasters and MSOs facing such problems to bring this to the notice of TRAI by 10 July.

     

    The TRAI representative who had attended the ninth Task Force Meeting for implementation of Digital Addressable System (DAS) in phase III areas on 7 July had given this assurance.

     

    The MSO has been asked to indicate the name of the broadcaster with whom there are any specific issues so that the representative of that broadcaster may also be called for the meeting.

     

    The exact time of the meeting would be conveyed by TRAI to the participants through e-mail after receiving the representation. 

  • TRAI asks MSOs to devise rational channel rates for phase III

    TRAI asks MSOs to devise rational channel rates for phase III

    MUMBAI: Close to 61 multi system operators (MSOs) have approached the broadcaster for signing of interconnect agreements. The statistics were revealed at the eighth task force meeting by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) advisor Sunil Kumar Singhal.

     

    Of these, according to the report received by Singhal, while the broadcasters have given their replies to the MSOs, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) is yet to be signed. The TRAI through its meetings with the MSOs and broadcasters, has identified four core issues relating to interconnect agreements. These are:

     

    1. While the MSOs are expressing interest for getting signals from broadcasters, they are being asked for more information, which is taking time. “Now with the intervention of TRAI, broadcasters have formalized their formats and have placed them on their websites so that all MSOs can submit requests at one go and the agreement signed,” informed Singhal.

     

    2. The distributors of several broadcasters in a state are also MSOs and that has led to conflict of interest with the MSOs. “We have been able to address this by seeking the details of the core team of the broadcasters to be approached for getting the signals and the broadcasters have provided such details also on their websites,” he said.

     

    3. The third point was related to pending dispute between MSOs in DAS areas which are both old as well as new. “These disputes need to be resolved mutually as TRAI would not intervene in such disputes,” he opined.

     

    4. There are differences between MSOs and broadcasters on the rate of channels.   “The larger MSOs are in negotiations with broadcasters to finalise the prices and it is indicated that they will be in a position to finalise them by mid June,” he said.

     

    Meanwhile, TRAI has asked the MSOs to devise means to have rational rates for phase III areas, as the rates for phase I and II cannot be workable in the remaining phases.

     

    The TRAI advisor also informed the task force meeting that there was confusion between both MSOs and broadcasters which related to the modus operandi for entering into agreements during the transition period.  The TRAI advisor said that the MSOs and broadcasters were business entities who should know how to communicate with each other in order to expedite and facilitate their business interests. The TRAI has asked the stakeholders to not repeat the mistakes of phase I and II by deploying pre-activated STBs.

     

    The representative of the MSOs, during the meeting said that whatever be the rate declared by broadcasters, TRAI should come out with a non-discriminative clause which should not push packages but allow the channels to be on a-la-carte basis. “We have been insisting on a-la-carte and not bundling of channels and any delay in the implementation of DAS will result in losses to both MSOs and broadcasters,” informed the TRAI advisor.

     

    According to a MSO representative, the packaging of channels should be monitored by TRAI. “The LCOs should be trained to spread DAS amongst the consumers as they are close to the consumers and can speedup this process,” opined the MSO representative.

     

    Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) additional secretary JS Mathur, who was also chairing the meeting said that the publicity campaign for the cutoff date for phase III should start now.

     

    According to Siti Cable Network’s Anil Malhotra, while the target rate of seeding set top boxes (STBs) requires to be around 2 to 3 lakh per day, the present rate of seeding is about 20-30 thousand boxes which is way short and logistic support has to be planned out in order to step-up the pace of seeding.

     

    During the meeting, a representative from BIS raised the issue of hacking of STBs and said that a request has been received from some broadcasters to strengthen the BIS Standard of STBs.

  • BSNL begins offering free nationwide roaming services on mobile

    BSNL begins offering free nationwide roaming services on mobile

    NEW DELHI: Free roaming services commenced on the largest public sector mobile operator in the country, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), allowing all its mobile customers to receive incoming calls at no cost from 15 June, 2015.

     

    As BSNL has the largest base in rural and semi-urban areas, this concession will go a long way in promoting the growth of mobile usage.

     

    “Now BSNL mobile customers will not need to carry multiple SIMs and handsets during roaming. They are free to talk as long as they want without worrying about any charges during incoming calls. In fact, it is like a dream of ‘One Nation One Number’ coming true,” said BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava.

     

    On 2 June, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced that the telco would be launching free roaming scheme from 15 June.

     

    However, BSNL had then said that it had not received any communication from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regarding the roaming scheme.

     

    BSNL had a mobile subscriber base of 7.72 crore as of March-end.

  • DAS Phase III: Status report

    DAS Phase III: Status report

    MUMBAI: It was in September 2014 when the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar extended the deadline for completion of phase III of cable TV digitization. Not only did Javadekar extend the deadline, but also set separate deadlines for phase III and IV, which initially were supposed to be completed in the same time frame.

     

    So, while the deadline for phase III was set to be December 2015, phase IV could be completed by December 2016.

     

    Notwithstanding these developments, it should be noted that interconnect agreements between multi system operators (MSOs) and last mile owners (LMOs) are not in place for phase I and II cities even now. Moreover, close to 700 MSOs interested in phase III areas have not yet been given the license to operate.

     

    With no announcement about the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman, the huge number of litigations between broadcasters, MSOs and LMOs pending in several High Courts and with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (TDSAT), there looms a big question mark on the timely completion of Digital Addressable System (DAS) for phase III.

     

    Maharashtra Cable Operators Federation president Arvind Prabhoo says that not more than five per cent of the cable TV homes falling in the phase III universe would have been digitized.

     

    “The government will have to step in if they want the deadline to be met. The government needs to incentivize cable operators by coming up with a cable modernization fund, which could be set at Rs 500 per subscriber. This can be recovered by the government in the next two years through GST,” he said.

     

    Prabhoo also points out that close to nine crore cable TV households in the phase III areas need to be digitized. “If the government sets incentive of Rs 500 per subscriber, we are looking at a modernization fund of only Rs 4500 crore for the whole ‘Digital India’ campaign. I am sure it is not asking for much,” he added.

     

    MSO Hathway Cable & Datacom along with its various subsidiaries has already seeded 50 per cent of its universe. Speaking toIndiantelevision.com on the issues affecting the smooth rollout of digitization in phase III, Hathway MD & CEO Jagdish Kumar Pillai said, “The biggest issue is getting content agreements executed at reasonable costs. The government is doing excellent work in facilitating this process.”

     

    The government on its part has been taking steps like holding not just task force meetings, but also consumer outreach programmes to ensure that the deadline for phase III is met. “We should be thankful to the government for taking a pro-active role in organising task force meetings and also meeting with and between stakeholders. Now it is up to the industry to step up and make it happen,” added Pillai.

     

    A source in TRAI tells this website that there will be no extension in the deadline for phase III. “The government may help facilitate the process, but there is no question of any more extension,” the source said adding that the consumer today is prepared to pay, and the broadcaster is going all out to publicise its digitised platforms. “So if there is any delay from LCOs or MSOs, the consumer will find other ways of going digital, which could be moving to HITS or DTH platform,” the source said.

     

    Speaking about signing off interconnect agreements, the TRAI official informed, “In the last task force meeting, stakeholders were asked to enter into interconnection agreements by June, and if they do not do so, they will be the one to lose. However, if requested, the government may give some more time.”

     

    Concurring with the TRAI official, a broadcaster, on condition of anonymity said, “I agree that there has been a slow start, but it is now picking up pace. There is some amount of progress in signing of contracts.”

     

    The broadcaster is also of the opinion that while 100 per cent of the phase III universe will not be digitized in the given deadline, it doesn’t call for any extension. “Both MIB and the TRAI are closely monitoring the stakeholders through the task force meetings,” he said.

     

    According to the broadcaster, close to 20 million set top boxes (STB) in phase III would have been seeded so far. “Digitisation has been happening for long. Even in phase III, the MSOs were giving digital but non-addressable boxes and now they are switching to addressable boxes and simultaneously activating the addressable feature of the earlier boxes. So, in terms of seeding of addressable boxes, it could be only five – six per cent, but the actual number is much higher,” he added.

     

    With only six months left for completion of digitization of phase III, the MIB has decided to give provisional registration to those MSOs who had applied for the license for phase III. For the same, the Ministry asked applicants to file their applications in an affidavit, which wants MSOs to commit that they have no criminal cases pending against them, and that they will shut down if they are refused security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

     

    MIB additional secretary JS Mathur said, “There is no reason for any extension of dates for completion of phase III. Work is proceeding as per schedule.”

     

    While the regulators have been taking all steps possible to ensure timely completion of phase III, the stakeholders do not seem to have learnt their lesson from phase I and II. Now how much of the DAS phase III area will be digitized till December 2015, only time will tell.

  • TRAI Chairmanship: An onerous responsibility fraught with delicate diplomacy & balancing acts

    TRAI Chairmanship: An onerous responsibility fraught with delicate diplomacy & balancing acts

    NEW DELHI: For any bureaucrat assigned to an autonomous organization under any Ministry, the biggest problem is to ensure smooth functioning between the Ministry and the organization.

     

    Even as Ram Sewak Sharma, a 1978-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre who is currently serving as secretary in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology appears to be the favourite for the hotseat of chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), he is one of over seventy-five contenders who reportedly include Information and Broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka.

     

    Erstwhile chairman Rahul Khullar had taken charge of the regulatory body on 14 May 2012, and demitted office earlier this month on 13 May.

     

    TRAI had been established under an Act of Parliament to deal with telecom issues, but was given additional charge of broadcasting just over a decade earlier. Even though it appears to have handled broadcasting issues with fair competence, the bent of mind of the officials in the regulator is still towards telecom.

     

    Convergence: A delicate balancing act

     

    The task for the seventh chairman of TRAI becomes even more onerous: he has to ensure smooth coordination with two Ministries. Even though TRAI technically falls under the Communication and Information Technology Ministry, it has to also work at tandem with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. 

     

    This balance between the two Ministries becomes crucial, considering that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government is again talking about convergence at a time when two of the primary players who were involved on this issue a decade earlier when the matter had come up – to utter failure – are still in the cabinet. Arun Jaitley then headed Law and now heads the Finance and I&B Ministries, whereas Sushma Swaraj, who was then in charge of I&B Minister is now in External Affairs. In that round, the late Pramod Mahajan as Communications Minister was also part of the Group of Ministers headed by then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.

     

    The fact remains that convergence is bound to become a hotly debated subject during the tenure of the new chairman, and a lot of diplomacy will be required to balance the demands of the two ministries.

     

    Digital India and Broadband

     

    Even as a lot has been heard about programmes on Digital India and Make in India with little tangible showing so far in telecom and broadcasting, one of the greatest challenges the new incumbent will have to face is ensuring the growth of broadband.

     

    At present, India is at the 89th position in Network Readiness Index with countries like Singapore, Finland and Sweden having become leaders and by TRAI’s own admission the broadband connectivity is abysmally low with just 99.2 million subscribers by March this year. 

     

    In view of this, the government’s ambitious national broadband plan to connect as many as 2.5 lakh villages through optic fibre appears to be too far-fetched and even came in for sharp criticism from outgoing chairman Khullar, who termed the move as “impossible” to implement and something that is bound to “fail.” In fact, he said a plan to connect the entire country at one go is not the right way of providing broadband connectivity to all.

     

    Broadcasting Sector

     

    Expectedly, TRAI will need to not only strengthen its broadcasting team but also ensure greater coordination among officers in both broadcasting and telecom. This is also obvious from the number of policy decisions with regard to broadcasting, which have been taken to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Addressable System and the Courts.

     

    The primary challenge that TRAI faces in broadcasting is to establish its credibility of being impartial and not playing into the hands of the broadcasting lobby. The cable operators and independent multi-system operators have been crying hoarse over this issue, often leading to litigation.

     

    In fact, the regulator has had to backtrack several times in the recent past, either on its own or because of Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and court decisions and hopes the Supreme Court will come to its aid.

     

    A day after Khullar laid down office, TRAI on 13 May announced that amendments to its tariff orders issued on 1 October, 2004 and 21 July, 2010, which had been set aside by TDSAT earlier this month would be subject to the outcome of the appeal filed by the regulator before the Supreme Court.

     

    The two amendments made by the TRAI to its tariff orders that aimed at preventing broadcasters from giving their channels directly to the subscribers and putting commercial subscriber at par with ordinary subscribers were struck down by TDSAT on 9 March.

     

    TDSAT said TRAI must now undertake a fresh exercise ‘on a completely clean slate. It must put aside the earlier debates on the basis of which it has been making amendments in the three principal tariff orders none of which has so far passed judicial scrutiny. It must consider afresh the question whether commercial subscribers should be treated equally as home viewers for the purpose of broadcasting services tariff or there needs to be a different and separate tariff system for commercial subscribers or some parts of that larger body. It is hoped and expected that TRAI will issue fresh tariff orders within six months from to-day.’

     

    On 16 May, TRAI failed to get a stay from the Supreme Court of the order of TDSAT setting aside the amendments in two tariff orders, which had sought to put an inflation-linked hike of 27.5 per cent on addressable and non-addressable systems.

     

    The regulator also failed to get permission to take action against television channels violating its diktat of a total of 12 minutes of commercial and promotional advertisements every hour, though all broadcasters were asked to keep records of this by the Delhi High Court.

     

    Despite announcements, there has been little progress in the Make in India campaign as far as indigenous set top boxes for digital addressable systems go and most consumers have to put up with Chinese or other boxes.

     

    Similarly, analogue transmission continues in many parts of the cities and towns that have gone digital and the Government failed to get the stay of Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) in Chennai vacated.

     

    The subscription charges for the average consumer under DAS still continues to create confusion as far as free to air and pay channels go and that is the primary reason for the LCO’s inability to do proper billing – giving a reason for the broadcaster to complain.

     

    The Direct-to-Home (DTH) sector also complains about the fee charged by the Ministry, which they say makes it difficult for them to continue or earn profits.

     

    Both Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) and headend-in-the-sky (HITS) are still considered nascent technologies despite having been around for some years, and TRAI will have to find ways to encourage their growth, particularly in the face of smartphones which can receive live TV signals for which they often pay nothing.

     

    While the nation is talking about digital technology, Prasar Bharati feels that Frequency Modulation, which is an analogue technology, should be promoted until the nation is read for digital radio sets. This seems to militate against the crores of rupees spent by All India Radio (AIR) in Digital Radio Mondiale technology. Though TRAI has not interfered as it is a matter between the I&B Ministry and the public service broadcaster, it may have to do so if digitization has to succeed.

     

    Both the Government and TRAI have been announcing that e-auctions of the first batch of Phase III FM would begin in May but the month is almost at an end and no date has been fixed yet.

     

    Telecom Sector

     

    The new chairman would be taking charge at a time when the telecom sector is facing major turmoil with the emergence of over-the-top (OTT) operators. While the broadcasting community appears to be happy as the communication OTT will help popularize its programmes, the cellular operators feel OTT will affect their revenues adversely. The TRAI consultation paper also touched upon net neutrality, which is bound to gain controversy in the era of convergence.

     

    If the successor is Sharma, then his task will become even more challenging as it is bound to militate against the post he has been holding until now and where he had in fact set up a committee on the same subject even as a Parliamentary Committee is also considering this issue.

     

    Spectrum and the inability of the government to auction the entire spectrum available in the last e-auction – with 12 per cent remaining unsold – is bound to trouble the regulator. Added to that is the fact that despite the fact that the last e-auction was held in the tenure of the present government, Minister Prasad recently assuring the industry that the auction of spectrum in the future too would be conducted in a timely, fair and transparent way.

     

    Even as 3G is still to become a success, the regulator has been asked to look at 4G at a time when many telecom service providers are facing problems.

     

    Other challenges in telecom include extending the mobile network to rural India, and a debate whether India is ready for Virtual Network Operators.

     

    Clearly, the new chairman has to burn the midnight oil and at the same time avoid heartburn as he goes about his task of resolving the multifarious tasks before him.