In the wake of government approving the Headends in the Sky (HITS) policy guidelines, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today released a consultation paper seeking views of stakeholders on tariff dispensation issues related to it.
The Union Cabinet had cleared the HITS policy guidelines in November last year, giving an option to cable operators to digitally distribute television channels in various parts of the country.
Soon after the HITS-related guidelines were cleared by the cabinet, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had requested TRAI to give its views on the interconnection regulations and issue tariff orders for promotion of HITS services.
The consultation paper titled "Interconnection and tariff issues related to HITS services" intends to seek views of stakeholders on issues relating to amendments to the interconnection regulations and tariff dispensation.
The authority has invited all stakeholders to respond to the issues raised in the consultation paper by April 26, 2010. HITS serves the whole country providing its signals through satellite to many Multi System Operators (MSOs) and cable operators who can further send the signals to the customers using their network.
The essential difference between a HITS operator and a Multi System Operator (MSO) is that the former transmits the bundle of channels to the cable operators using a satellite, whereas the latter does the same through cable.
HITS is a digital delivery mode of distribution of TV channel and it would speed up the process of digitalisation of cable services located in non-CAS (conditional access system) areas of the country.