Thakur
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently come out with a revised Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Seventh) (the Direct-to-Home Services) Tariff Order, 2015 on 1 April 2015, thus fixing the tariff in respect of customer premises equipment (CPE) used by the DTH service providers.
This tariff order has been notified to come into effect from 1 June 2015.
It is interesting to note here that this tariff order is a revision of a similar CPE tariff order, which was challenged in appeal by the DTH operators, whereby the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had directed TRAI to consider certain significant and crucial cost components the authority did not consider then.
It seems the regulator has once again not only ignored critical cost components, but has travelled too far by stretching the applicability of the new tariff order to even high-definition (HD) CPE, which was neither sought to be done by the TDSAT nor justified considering huge cost gap between the vanilla CPE and HD CPE.
Feeling aggrieved by this new tariff order, the DTH operators had no other option but to have this tariff order impugned once again before the tribunal.
After admitting the appeal by the DTH operators, the TDSAT kept this matter for hearing on 25 May 2015.
Presently, when there are six DTH operators already creating enough competition, the question arises as to why TRAI wants to interfere in the pricing aspect of CPE, which are offered to the customers by DTH operators already at a highly subsidized price.
As the DTH operators are already with huge losses and multiple taxes, such lopsided tariff orders will put additional financial burden on them and make their businesses unviable.
On the contrary, considering the tardy progress of digitisation in the country, digital platforms like DTH should be given more and more flexible and amenable milieu to help government to achieve complete digitisation, instead of curtailing their very basic and constitutional right to trade with freedom.
The DTH operators had earlier detailed out the cost components to be considered by TRAI while coming out with a tariff order pertaining to CPE.
However, TRAI has ignored these crucial cost components while formulating the tariff order for CPE
Read more at:
http://www.televisionpost.com/dth/a-critical-look-into-trais-cpe-tariff-order-for-dth/
This tariff order has been notified to come into effect from 1 June 2015.
It is interesting to note here that this tariff order is a revision of a similar CPE tariff order, which was challenged in appeal by the DTH operators, whereby the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had directed TRAI to consider certain significant and crucial cost components the authority did not consider then.
It seems the regulator has once again not only ignored critical cost components, but has travelled too far by stretching the applicability of the new tariff order to even high-definition (HD) CPE, which was neither sought to be done by the TDSAT nor justified considering huge cost gap between the vanilla CPE and HD CPE.
Feeling aggrieved by this new tariff order, the DTH operators had no other option but to have this tariff order impugned once again before the tribunal.
After admitting the appeal by the DTH operators, the TDSAT kept this matter for hearing on 25 May 2015.
Presently, when there are six DTH operators already creating enough competition, the question arises as to why TRAI wants to interfere in the pricing aspect of CPE, which are offered to the customers by DTH operators already at a highly subsidized price.
As the DTH operators are already with huge losses and multiple taxes, such lopsided tariff orders will put additional financial burden on them and make their businesses unviable.
On the contrary, considering the tardy progress of digitisation in the country, digital platforms like DTH should be given more and more flexible and amenable milieu to help government to achieve complete digitisation, instead of curtailing their very basic and constitutional right to trade with freedom.
The DTH operators had earlier detailed out the cost components to be considered by TRAI while coming out with a tariff order pertaining to CPE.
However, TRAI has ignored these crucial cost components while formulating the tariff order for CPE
Read more at:
http://www.televisionpost.com/dth/a-critical-look-into-trais-cpe-tariff-order-for-dth/
