(28 September 2007 2:25 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is going to issue clarifications soon on billing issues to solve the current confusion, officials told indiantelevision.com today.

Meanwhile, the MSOs, who have so far been blamed for improper billing and faulty channel availability will launch a public awareness campaign soon, enlisting among others, the resident welfare associations of colonies or other civic bodies, MSO sources told indiantelevision.com.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had this week called the MSOs for a meeting on enforcing quality of service (QoS) and told them of their observations on the subject, and shared the problems faced by the latter.

Trai told the MSOs that the largest volume of complaints was on billing, where many customers say they are not getting all the channels they had marked their choice for.

Trai said also that many customers were not getting the bills and told the MSOs to ensure that they do.

However, Anil Malhotra, President (North) of In Cable told indiantelevision.com: "We have pointed out to Trai that the Standard Interconnect Agreement issued by Trai and signed between MSOs and LCOs say that the franchise (LCO) will raise the bill on the subscriber."

The issue, as Malhotra pointed out, is complex, for if Trai says that MSOs should send copies of the pay channel bills to subscribers directly, and the LCOs send separate bills for the FTAs it would violate the regulation.

The regulation says there has to be a single bill raised by the franchise and delivered to the subscriber by them.

A senior Trai official said: "They have raised these issues and given certain suggestions, and we are studying them and will soon issue fresh clarification as to how to solve this."

MSOs said they would wait for the Trai clarifications and would abide by them.

Meanwhile, the Trai official added: "We shall also bring the LCOs in and take their points of view and suggestions, and we shall not take a one-sided approach to the solution."

The MSOs, WWIL, Hathway, In Cable, Manthan, Cablecom and others present, have also decided to convene a meeting in a short while to devise the ways and means of going creating subscriber awareness, they have informed Trai.

"We have told Trai that we will flash the telephone numbers of our BPOs and customers can call up and either complain, or express their desire for change," Arvind Mohan, EVP, WWIL told indiantelevision.com.

"If a customer wants, say, Neo Sports channel now because of the coming ODIs, we shall give them the channel on a telephonic request, but if the fax or any written request does not come to us, we shall disconnect the channel in two days," Mohan said.

He explained that the regulation says that a pay channel opted for must be subscribed for at least four months at a stretch, and most customers have a tendency of wanting to hook out of the channels the moment their event of interest is over.

"Someone will say he wants Neo or ESPN now, and as soon as the event is over, demand to switch out, which is not allowed as per regulations in place," he said.

This creates problems for billing and also gets the MSOs into disputes with broadcasters, Mohan stated further.

The MSOs feel there is still lack of awareness among customers, and would now educate the customers through pamphlets and also by activating the Resident Welfare Associations wherever possible.

Asked whether they have spoken to Trai about LCOs and their operational problems, Mohan said also: "We have told Trai that in 80 per cent of the cases of complaints, it is the faulty last mile operation that is responsible."

So are the MSOs going to concentrate only on educating the subscribers, or would they do some hard talking with the LCOs as well?

"We shall tell them that with DTH and IPTV speeding in, the subscriber is intelligent enough to settle for only the best service, and once a subscriber goes to DTH, he is not going to come back to cable."