(18 March 2008 3:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: The government has accepted most of the recommendations sent by sector regulator Trai on Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) barring allowing it on Ku-band and using a foreign satellite, said information and broadcasting secretary Asha Swarup.

The government would formally announce the policy within a month, Swarup told a gathering at the Casbaa event on "India Satellite Forum - New Challenges, New Opportunities."

"The government has considered the recommendations given by sector regulator Trai and has largely accepted them," Swarup added.

The two key positions recommended by Trai but have been rejected by the government is uplinking from a foreign country and the bandwidth.

Swarup said that government has rejected the Trai recommendation that HITS be allowed to upload from both foreign countries as well as from within India. This has been done from a national security perspective, she added.

Swarup, however, mentioned that this may in the future be possible if technological solutions can be found to keep security concerns even while uploading from abroad.

Swarup said that HITS will be announced only on C band for two reasons: first that DTH and cable should not contest on the same band, and second, Ku band suffers from rain-fade, which is not desirable for basic cable service.

She said that for HITS to become successful, players should look at set-top boxes (STBs) being made cheaper, and the key factor would be the level of investment by the industry.

Reacting to the statement, Ashok Mansukhani, MSO Alliance president said: "This is a major policy announcement, because the ministry has made said it has made two changes and kept the rest of the Trai recommendations intact. We shall now await a formal announcement, hopefully soon."

He said that the cable industry has been waiting for this announcement for a long time, as this for the first time creates the level playing field vis-à-vis DTH.

Digicable Network (India) CEO and MD JS Kohli said: "This is a welcome step but there are worries about space constraints, which need to be addressed as well."

Added Essel Corporate EVP Avnindra Mohan: "We are delighted because it was our group that has been pushing for an even playing field for HITS vis-à-vis DTH and this will boost digitalisation at the farthest corners of the cable universe."