industry

Trai seeks industry views on interoperable set-top boxes


MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has initiated a consultation process on interoperability of set-top boxes (STBs) for digital TV broadcasting services.

The sector regulator thinks that the lack of interoperability of STBs between different service providers – cable and direct-to-home (DTH) operators – has compromised competition in the pay TV market and has been a major hindrance to technological innovation, improvement in service quality, and the overall sector growth.

In its consultation paper released on Monday, Trai has sought stakeholders’ views on 13 questions with detailed justifications for suggesting most optimal and cost-effective solutions.

Trai has asked if interoperability of STBs is desired and whether it should have universal interoperability which means that the same STB could be used on both DTH and cable platforms or there should be a policy or regulation to implement interoperability only within the platforms – DTH or cable.

It has sought to know if STBs should be made available in the open market. Given the e-waste generated by the regular STBs, Trai has asked whether STB interoperability would help reduce the environmental damage.

The cable and DTH operators have been against the idea of STB interoperability, citing variation in technology. Trai, however, remained adamant and started taking measures like meetings and discussions with stakeholders to achieve the STB interoperability. It also got engaged with technology companies in the broadcasting arena for sharing information.

Trai has also sought stakeholders’ views on how STB interoperability could be implemented in the Indian market and a timeline for development of an ecosystem to deploy the system. The regulator had first issued a pre-consultation paper in April 2016. A consultation note on the solution architecture developed by C-DoT for technically interoperable STBs was issued in August 2017.

Trai said that the smart card-based solution has been successfully tested in lab conditions using separate instances of conditional access system (CAS) developed by C-DoT. Field-testing with third-party CAS solution is yet to be conducted with different stakeholders.

Stakeholders need to comment on the proposed solution architecture for technically interoperable STB by December 9 and the deadline for counter-comments is set for December 23.





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