TRAI to float papers on ease of doing biz, set-top portability in June

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is set to float in June two consultation papers related to the broadcasting sector -- one on ease of doing business and the other dealing with the all-important issue of portability of a set-top box.

Pre-consultation papers on the twin subjects were issued earlier by the regulator – one in April this year and the other in the same month of last year. That it has already been more than a year since the broadcast regulator first issued the pre-consultation paper shows the sensitive, controversial and challenging nature of the set-top portability issue.

The regulator generally issues a consultation paper to seek the views of the stakeholders on any matter. A pre-consultation paper is issued when the matter is very broad and the regulator, itself unsure of the viability of the concept, first wants to test the waters by talking to various experts in order to make a case.

While a formal exercise in terms of a consultation paper and subsequent open house discussions is yet to begin, an official familiar with the thinking at the regulator said it was toying with the idea of a single window clearance to make it easy to do business in the broadcasting sector.

Currently, an entity in the sector may need clearances from Home Ministry, Finance Ministry, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Defence Ministry, Department of Space as well as local bodies.

“Sometimes, one has to go back and forth to various ministries seeking clearances as clearance from one ministry may be dependent on approval of the other. A single window mechanism will obviate the need for the operator to run from one department to another,” the official said.

The other consultation paper – one on interoperability of set-top box -- will surely meet resistance from the service providers. The concept that will allow consumers to change their service provider without changing their set top box has never been tried anywhere in the world and faces technological challenges, besides resistance from the service providers.

"We have engaged C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics). There’s substantial progress. We are going to review the work. We are near the first interesting solution," TRAI Chairman Ram Sewak Sharma had told Moneycontrol in April.

The high-cost of a set-top box is one of the key reasons why a consumer doesn’t change her service provider despite being dissatisfied with it.

Most likely, TRAI will go for gradual implementation of portability not just geography-wise but also in terms of various segments of the distribution sector. This means initially it may implement the concept for only cable-to-cable shift or only DTH-to-DTH shift while the cable-to-DTH shift or vice versa may be implemented only later.