(22 September 2007 6:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: The broadcasters and MSOs have the primary responsibility for ensuring Quality of Service (QoS), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairperson Nripendra Misra told Indiantelevision.com in an exclusive interview.

Misra says that after the first six or eight months of Cas being implemented, now is the stage when the manual of practice of the MSO has to be made available to the subscribers, but that is not there in most cases, leading to denial of what Misra termed 'contractual conveyance'.

He further said that MSOs and broadcasters have been told strictly that as of 1 July, there will be no forbearance, and Quality of Service has to be ensured, but he said also that the subscribers have also not insisted on quality.

Misra says that awareness is poor even now: "The people still do not know how to reach out to MSOs, how to ask for channels, and how to get rebates when preferred channels are not being available."

However, he said awareness is an ongoing process, and some people can say they are not happy with the present level of Cas QoS.

"But some others can say that they are unhappy with the level of performance of DTH too, and that does not mean either Cas or DTH is a failure," Misra held.

His analysis is that the MSOs were not ready with the surge in demand in the beginning, and hence to help them get over the initial pressure, Trai had decided to benignly overlook the QoS issues, but that will not longer be the case.

Again, asking the RWAs to pitch in with awareness, and somewhat absolving the LCOs - who he said has done a tremendous job - Misra says, there have been several number of cases when the LCO's boys have gone five or six times for the forms to be filled up, but under some excuse or other, the subscriber has sent them back.

The RWAs have a role to play here, making the residents aware, which has not always been the case, the chairperson feels.

On the whole, Misra said that Cas has become a trendsetter and debunked the recent VOICE press statement that 70 per cent of the Cas subscribers have rejected the system.