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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has given multi-system operators (MSOs) a week's extension for collecting customer application forms in the 38 cities of the second phase of digitisation. The decision was taken after the regulator met representatives of MSOs and local cable operators (LCOs) here on Monday.
MSOs were supposed to cut connections to households that failed to submit the forms by December 15. Nearly 85 per cent of households have given the forms and MSOs are confident forms from another 10 per cent of the 10 million households would be in within a week. There will be a final meeting on the matter between Trai and MSOs on December 24.
However, some MSOs might voluntarily switch off signals to households that have yet not turned in the forms to put pressure on them. An official from of an MSO said, “A lot of us are going ahead with partial switch-off in any case. It has proven effective in urging the customers to be prompt.”
The operators agree the going had been much smoother in the second phase because of the lessons learnt in the first phase. Anil Malhotra, chief operating officer, Siticable, said, “We knew what to expect this time and were better prepared. Of course, there will be some resistance on the ground but, by and large, we have managed 85 per cent collection.”
Other MSOs like InCable, Den Networks and Hathway have also managed to collect around 75 to 80 per cent of the forms and hope to collect nearly 90 to 95 per cent by the next week.
The cities of Hyderabad and Vizag may be treated with more leniency considering the delay in collection of forms on account of ambiguity of areas that fell under phase 2 of digitisation. These two cities may be given a couple of weeks more say industry insiders.
Other matters that came up in the meeting included the billing of phase 1 customers. A spokesperson from InCable informs, "The regulator urged us to speed up the billing process of phase 1 cities and stressed informing Trai about the agreements with the LCO's and broadcasters as and when they happen. As far as InCable is concerned, we are well on our way to meet those deadlines and requirements as well."
Trai had earlier this month issues a directive that asked MSOs to provide cable TV services on both pre-paid and post-paid payment options to the subscriber and that they will be responsible for generation of bills for the subscribers.
