Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has included not only C-DOT but also experts from well known institutions like IITs and IISc to study and find solutions to technological challenges preventing the implementation of interoperability of set top boxes. On Wednesday the TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma said that interoperability of STBs, means that the customers will be able to change cable or DTH operators without changing their STBs. For a long time they had this in regulator’s agenda but many technological factors had obstructed their progress. However, now within a year’s time the regulator is hopeful of reaching a solution.
Mr.Sharma pointed out that one of the factors leading to the delay was to keep it safe from piracy, meaning it was necessary to keep the security and the broadcasters safe from piracy . He also explained saying that because it is essentially a technology issue, we have brought on board professors from IITs and other institutions to look at it from a technology perspective.
Last week we had reported that the Supreme Court of India struck down the Commission’s regulation which made it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers for call drops. Last year in October, TRAI, had asked the telecom firms, in a notification, to compensate each consumer with INR 1 for each call drop which was further subjected to subject to a maximum of three disrupted calls in a day beginning from January this year. However, On March 1, the Delhi High Court has upheld the same against which the Cellular Operators’ Association of India, which is a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and a cartel of 21 telecom operators, including big names like Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance, approached the Supreme Court.
