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DELHI: The MSO Alliance has protested the proposed attempt
by Trai to prescribe an overall ceiling of prices at retail
levels, saying that it will be detrimental to the interest
a vast majority of subscribers, is technically impossible
to implement and would create an array of confusions leading
to scores of legal cases.
Alliance
leaders have told Indiantelevision.com that Trai is
doing this even as the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate
Tribunal is hearing an appeal on the former's request with
Trai to amend the October 2004 Tariff Order.
MSO
Alliance secretary Arvind Mohan has sent a letter to Trai
saying that if the reports on Trai prescribing packages /
tiers based on the number of FTA and pay channels are true,
there are bound to be problems and has appealed for the broadest
possible consultation before the authority puts up a draft
Tariff Order.
"If
the newspaper reports are true then the proposed move is likely
to adversely affect not only the MSOs and other stakeholders
in the value chain but also the consumers in general,"
the letter says.
The
Alliance says that broadcasters at the moment do not give
pay channels a la carte and the authority has rejected their
request to amend the 1 October, 2004 tariff order.
The
Alliance's contention is that, cable prices vary from city
to city, from one operator in a city to another in the same
one, and even between various customers of the same operator
in the same area, according to the purchasing power of the
customers.
In
that event, a pricing ceiling would push every operator towards
going for the upper-most price in the ceiling, as has been
done by broadcasters in the mandated Cas areas where Trai
had put the upper limit at Rs 5, and non broadcasters has
priced any channel below that.
This
would be detrimental to the poorer sections of the society,
who would suddenly see their monthly bills pushed to the upper
limit, and would marginally bring down price for the upper
classes, for whom such a reduction does not matter anyway,
Mohan's letter has averred.
"If
a ceiling of say Rs 250 is fixed by Trai, the cable operator,
even though he may be charging say Rs 175 in a particular
area, would immediately increase the price to Rs 250 on the
pretext that Trai has allowed it. This would be directly prejudicial
to the subscribers," it says.
The
letter also says: "The issue of price cap replacing the
price freeze as per the 2004 Tariff Order appears to have
arisen out of responses filed by stakeholders recently,"
and calls the Alliance has asked for broader consultation
on the issue.
Incidentally,
asked about the cap replacing the freeze, Trai chairperson
in a recent interview told Indiantelevision.com that
he would not comment, as the consultation paper has not been
issued, but said that there would be consideration to meet
the expectations of both, high as well as low income groups.
The
letter also says that even technically, it will not be possible
for a cable operator to provide varying number of channels
from its control room to different customers falling within
his area of operation.
"This
is likely to create more chaos and confusion," the letter
says, adding that if number of channels becomes the criterion
for pricing, then the operators may include in his service
the less popular FTAs and lower priced pay channels to meet
the number requirements," the letter says.
MSO
Alliance leaders say this would effectively take away choice
from the customers, something that goes against Trai's so
far declared target.
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