Portability of set-top boxes by year-end: Trai chief

[Mystique]

NEW DELHI: Troubled by your cable operator or DTH company, but unable to change your service provider as you are locked into your set-topbox (STB)? Things may soon change as
broadcastr regulatorTraip plansto make digital boxes inter-operable by the end of this year. This will give freedom to millions of customers to change their operator at no cost in case of deficient services.

“I am working on this. It will happen,” Trai chairman RS Sharma told TOI when asked about the introduction of inter-operability in the broadcast sector. “Rest assured, we will make inter-operable STBs happen,” Sharma added.

Portability of set-top boxes by year-end: Trai chief - Times of India

 

[ShivRaj]

It will increase tough competition in Dth industry..

 

[guru123]

nice move by trai

 

[Sumanth]

All these moves by TRAI seem like a preperation for JIO's entry so that its easier for JIO

 

[Zero7]

All these moves by TRAI seem like a preperation for JIO's entry so that its easier for JIO

I don't agree with you. Please explain how it's going to benefit Jio with facts.
It will be counter productive to Jio in my opinion as people will have better choices like you are using your own handset. In many countries, mobile handsets are locked to service providers and you need minimum commitment to use those handsets until you can get it unlocked or some countries thee is no option to unlock them

 

[Mystique]

Atleast after this rule we can expect good quality service by DTH providers

 

[Anup Tiwari]

Good news compitition will good

 

[Gopi27]

It will keep on delaying....only way to implement this feature is to build a Common STB for all DTH/cable.

 

[shreyaskini]

Good move even for cable. LCOs now won't be able to keep changing their MSO as per their will and charge for STB each time! In case LCO wants to shift for genuine reasons then again this move is great. Was badly needed
@Gopi27 you made a fantastic point there. Wish it happens soon.

 

[Abhishekjoshi84]

I hate to say this, but it will be counterproductive. First of all, even if they get everyone involved(CAS, chip manufacturers, DTH and MSOs ) to agree on a common standard, every single STB in the country will need to be changed to move to such a new generic STB adhering to a new common standard. Who will pay for it?
Also, this would restrict adding new features which could be operator specific, would interfere with options available to operators with regards to compression and quality.
An easier option would be to keep operator specific STBs but enforce full refund from operators for them if you decide to switch and return the STB.