The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released a consultation paper and sought a response from all the stakeholders for suggesting the best solution to implement the interoperability of set-top box (STB) for digital TV broadcasting services. STB interoperability allows customers to switch their operator without changing the set-top box.
Presently the STBs deployed in the network are non-interoperable which means that the same STB cannot be used interchangeably across the different service providers. As per TRAI, this system has not only compromised the competition in the Pay-TV market but also a major hindrance to technological innovation, improvement in service quality, and sector growth.
In the paper accessed by DreamDTH, the regulator said “TRAI has been taking various measures to achieve the set-top box interoperability including the stakeholders’ meetings/ discussions. The Authority also engaged with various technology companies in the broadcasting technology space for information exchange.”
During April 2016 the authority had issued a pre-consultation paper on set-top box interoperability, thereafter, a consultation note on solution architecture developed by C-DoT for the technical interoperable set-top box was issued during August 2017.
The smart card-based solution has been successfully tested in lab conditions using separate instances of CAS but TRAI has admitted that the field testing with third-party CAS solution is still to be conducted with different industry stakeholders.
With this new consultation paper, TRAI wants a response with detailed justifications for suggesting the most optimal and cost-effective solution from all stakeholders. Comments on this CP are allowed to be submitted till Monday, December 9 while counter-comments can be presented by Monday, December 23.
