The Hindu Business Line : CAS report in 2 months: Baijal

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is likely to submit its recommendations on the implementation of the Conditional Access System (CAS) to the Government by July.

Representatives from the cable industry and broadcasters were in favour of CAS at an open house session convened by the TRAI chief, Mr Pradip Baijal.

``We will submit our recommendations on CAS in two months. Along with the recommendations, we have to suggest some amendments in the law also because CAS was delegated to TRAI through a notification and now we find there are some missing areas in the legislation,'' Mr Baijal said.

Elaborating, Mr Baijal said, ``For instance, a licensee is defined in the TRAI Act but that definition does not fit a broadcaster. All these missing links have to be addressed, and so we are working on that, and within two months we will send the entire package to the Government.'' He asked the stakeholders to make recommendations on the inter-operability of set-top boxes and on the pricing issue.

According to Mr Amitabh Kumar of Zee Network, CAS is necessary for the business model.

Mr Rakesh Dutta, General Secretary, Cable Networks Association, said CAS should be implemented as it was in the consumers' interest.

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