No hurdle to cable TV transmission

Visakhapatnam: The deadline for submitting consumer application forms to the multiple system operators (MSOs) has been extended up to Friday but many are yet to do it.

Those not doing will have their transmission cut though they possess set top boxes. General manager of Media Vision Pilla Srinivasa Rao had, sometime ago, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had announced on September 27 that the deadline for submitting filled-in CAFs was extended to November 15 and that they would discontinue transmission, if they failed to comply with the rule, despite having set top boxes.

CAF is meant for cable users for making choice of channels and preferred services they require and if they fail to do it is liable for disconnection, as per the guidelines.

The MSO official announced the last date one-and-a-half months ago and still many cable operators have not handed over the forms to the consumers. There are 5.5 lakh cable connections and around 80 pc of digitisation is completed.

Cable operators provided only set top boxes to the consumers but not the applicatoin forms. TRAI stated the deadline as ‘truly the very last opportunity’ and warned people that they would lose connectivity, if they failed to submit the form.

However, Srinivasa Rao said they had not received any communcation from the joint collector or any other officer directing them to stop signals from Friday.

“TRAI had announced in September. We have collected forms from 40 pc of the consumers so far. There would not be any disconnections from Friday as there have been no directions from the government,” he said.

Interestingly, no cable operator, who has to provide application forms and collect the information regarding preferred services, has even intimated to the consumers about TRAI’s rule in many areas.