The Hindu Business Line : TRAI not to regulate DTH tariff now

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New Delhi March 2 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has decided not to regulate the tariffs for Direct to Home services for now. The broadcast regulator, in a consultation paper on issues relating to DTH, said that a regulation was required only in case the level of competition was not adequate.

"It has been seen in the recent past that there has been some competition between the two DTH service providers as well as between DTH and cable. Competitive packages and offers have been made by all the service providers as against the situation just one year back when the consumer had virtually no choice and options. Considering all these developments, it has been decided that these issues should be looked at after some time when the impact of the competition in general, and impact of roll out of the CAS in cable TV in particular can be assessed," TRAI said in the paper.

TRAI had earlier said that a system of prescribing a tariff for each channel could be looked at for DTH services on the lines of what it has implemented for CAS.

There are 2.3 million DTH subscribers owned by Dish TV and Tata Sky compared to 68 million TV homes that have cable and satellite service. While Doordarshan also offers DTH services, it is free-to-air. Sun TV Ltd has received its licence and Reliance Blue magic has a letter of intent to launch their DTH services.

Quality service standards

TRAI has, however, sought industry opinion on whether quality of service standards for DTH should be mandated and the details of this approach.

TRAI has suggested that the approach being followed for the telecom sector could be introduced for the DTH players. TRAI has also raised the issue interoperability between set-top boxes being provided by the different DTH operators.

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