The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has issued regulations that seek to improve the quality of service (QoS) provided by cable TV operators in the Non-CAS areas.
Currently, the Conditional Access Regime (CAS), where cable TV services are digitalised and customers need a Set-top-Box (STB) to view pay channels, is applicable only in select parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and the whole of Chennai. The rest of India is classified as non-CAS areas. Trai had earlier issued quality of service regulations for cable operators in CAS areas. The extension of these regulations to all parts of the country implies that customers all over the country can expect a marked improvement in the quality of Cable TV services.
There are over 80 million consumers receiving cable TV services from 60,000 cable operators in non-Cas areas. No formal regulations for QoS existed in the wake of a “highly fragmented nature of cable TV sector and because of implementation difficulties at ground level.”
Trai had earlier set QoS norms for the cable TV service in CAS (conditional access system) areas and for the DTH industry. It had also issued a consultation paper on quality of service (QoS) for cable TV services in non-CAS areas on 1 December, 2008.
The regulations will be effective from 1 April 2009. As per the regulations,
- Every cable operator will have to establish a help desk for the purposes of receiving cable service requests, answering queries, receiving complaints and redressal of grievances of its subscribers. And the help desk should be accessible to the subscribers from 8 am to 8 pm.
- Every cable operator will have to maintain a record of complaints and will have to maintain the record for at least three months from the date of registration of the complaint. Also, cable operators will have to present such records whenever called upon by the authority.
- Every cable operator will have to give every subscriber the bill for the charges due for each. The bill should contain the detail of total number of pay and free-to-air channels provided by the cable operator, and for every payment the cable operator has to issue a signed receipt to the consumer.
- Representatives of the cable operator will have to carry proper photo identification while visiting the premises of subscribers.
- It is made compulsory for cable operators to issue bills and receipts to its subscribers.
The sector regulator has also addressed issues like procedure for connection, disconnection and reconnection; setting up mandatory redressal system; maintaining a record of complaints; maintaining technical standards like measurable signal strength and six-hour power backup.
The regulations also deal with issues like standards for provisioning of digital decoders and set-top-boxes (STBs) for voluntary CAS, compulsory technical standards to be observed by the cable operators, including a good quality, measurable signal strength at subscriber’s end, maintaining six-hour power backup, and monitoring of QoS standards.
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