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Cas extension after proper evaluation of first phase: Dasmunsi

Indiantelevision.com Team

(14 August 2007 7:30 pm)

NEW DELHI:While the centre has asked state governments to give their views on extension of conditional access system (Cas) in other areas of the country, the Information and Broadcasting ministry today refused to give a time frame in this regard.

Information and Broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told the Lok Sabha today that any extension required evaluation of the first phase and large scale consultations with stakeholders, consumer organizations and state governments.

Meanwhile, the states where Cas has been deployed have been asked by the ministry to get surveys conducted by professional agencies to understand the issues and problems involved. The minister said no separate committee had been constituted by the ministry for monitoring the growth of Cas.

The Lok Sabha was today informed that as on 31 July 2007, 5,12,000 Set Top Boxes (STBs) had been deployed by multi- system operators/cable operators.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has assigned the work of audit of Quality of Service (QoS) performance in the Cas notified areas to the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL). Trai has issued a regulation on Quality of Service (QoS) to be provided by the service providers in the Cas notified areas.

According to Trai, 47 complaints have been received regarding poor quality and non-availability of channels selected by the subscribers. Out of these, 40 complaints have been resolved, and for the rest, the matter is being pursued with the service providers.