Lok Sabha Question No. 1028 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-04-29
Subject: Digitization of Cable Sector
Ministry: INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
Asked by: ANURAG SINGH THAKUR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1028 (TO BE ANSWERED ON 29/4/2016)

## DIGITIZATION OF CABLE SECTOR

## 1028. SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR

## Will the Minister of INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING be pleased to state:

- (a) whether Digital Addressable System (DAS) has been made mandatory for digitization of cable television sector in the country, if so, the details thereof along with the present status of its implementation;
- (b) whether the Government has set any deadlines for its implementation in all States of the country, if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise;
- (c) whether the Government is aware that the Multi-System Operators have not submitted Know Your Customer (KYC) forms making it difficult to assess the exact revenue being generated, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) whether the Government has undertaken any detailed study to identify bottlenecks to achieve complete digitization in the country; and
- (e) if so, the further steps taken/being taken by the Government to expedite the digitization process?

## ANSWER

## THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  INFORMATION  AND BROADCASTING {COL RAJYAVARDHAN RATHORE (Retd.)}

- (a) and (b):

DAS in the Cable Television Sector has been made mandatory in the country in four Phases.

Phase-I of the Digitization has been completed, by the cut-off date of 31 st October 2012, in metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.  The process is incomplete in Chennai due to pending Court Cases.

Phase-II was to be completed by 31 st March 2013 in 38 cities spanning across 14 States and one Union Territory.  It has been completed in all the cities except Coimbatore where the work is pending due to Court Cases.

Phase-III covering all the remaining urban areas in the country was to be completed by 31 st Dec 2015.  As per data provided  by the Multi System Operators (MSOs), Direct to Home (DTH)  &  HITS  Operators  digitization  in    Phase-III  areas  has  been  almost  completed  in states/UTs of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha,  Punjab,  Rajasthan,  Sikkim,  Uttar  Pradesh,  Uttarakhand  and  Andaman  &  Nicobar. Digitisation in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Tripura and Dadra & Nagar Haveli is  nearing  completion.  In  other  States  &  Union  Territories  is  yet  to  be  fully achieved.

Just a few days before the cut-off date of 31.12.2015 for Phase III, a number of court cases  were  filed  by  some  MSO  Associations,  MSO  Federations,  registered  MSOs,  MSO applicants and individuals in various High Courts in the country requesting to extend the cutoff date of 31.12.2015 mainly on the plea that there is a shortage of STBs.

The  Hon'ble  High  Court  of  Telangana  and  Andhra  Pradesh,  vide  its  order  dated 30.12.2015 had extended the date of implementation of Phase III by two months.  It was again extended first for 4 weeks and subsequently till further orders.

On  31.12.2015,  citing  the  order  passed  by  Hon'ble  High  Court  of  Telangana  and Andhra Pradesh, the Sikkim High Court had granted extension of 12 weeks.

A writ petition filed by M/s. Nasik Zila Cable Operators and others, was pending in the High Court of Bombay.  The High Court in its hearing on 23.12.2015 had not acceded to the request of petitioner for extension of cut-off date.  However, in the hearing held on 04.01.2016, the petitioner(s) cited the interim order passed by the Telangana and Sikkim High Courts and requested for the stay.  The Division Bench of Hon'ble High Court passed the following order on 04.01.2016:

' Since the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Sikkim High Court have passed an order of status quo, in view of the observations made by the Apex Court in the case Kusum Ingots & Alloys Ltd. Vs. Union of India [(2004) 6 Supreme Court Cases 254] and more particularly, paragraph 22 of the said order, the question of grant of interim order does not arise in this case .'

Subsequently, a number of other MSO associations and individuals have filed petitions in various High Courts, such as Orissa, Chandigarh, Allahabad, Indore, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Jaipur,  Karnataka,  Guwahati,  Kolkata  and  Shimla  etc.    These  Courts  have  either  granted extension of two months, as was granted by the High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, or dismissed the petition(s) with the directions not to disconnect the cable TV network operated by the petitioner(s) and allowed them to operate  in analogue system for 2-3 months.

Ministry of I&B had filed a Transfer Petition in Hon'ble Supreme Court requesting to transfer all cases and Hon'ble Apex court has transferred all such cases in Delhi High Court. Date of Next hearing is awaited.

Phase-IV, which will cover all the remaining areas in the country, is be completed by 31 st Dec 2016.

(c): As per TRAI Regulations the Multi System Operator (MSO) or its linked Local Cable Operator (LCO), as the case may be, shall devise formats of application for seeking connection, disconnection, and reconnection and for obtaining and returning of set top box by the subscribers.  The Regulation also mandates that every MSO shall establish, set up and operationalize its Subscriber Management System (SMS) and such SMS shall ensure efficient and error-free service to the subscribers by recording and providing individualized preferences for channels, billing cycles or refunds. The SMS should be computerized and capable to record the  vital  information  and  data  concerning  the  subscribers  such  as  name,  address,  contact number of subscribers etc. along with the channels or bouquet of channels subscribed by the subscribers.

The  service  providers  have  been  advised  by  TRAI  to  use  electronic  Customer Application Forms (e-CAF) to bring efficiencies in providing and managing the services to the subscribers. To create the awareness about the provisions of the Regulations, the Authority has taken several measures to educate the service providers. Several interactions were held in past to  make aware about the provisioning of Customer Application Forms. 'Dos' and 'Don'ts' were also issued to MSOs and LCOs.  Directions were also issued in past, to MSOs and LCOs to comply with the provisions of the regulations on Customer Application Forms and SMS.

(d) and (e):

To  steer  the  process  of  Cable  TV  Digitisation,  a  Task  Force,  comprising  of  all stakeholders,  was  constituted  by  the  Ministry  under  the  chairpersonship  of  the  Additional Secretary. Monthly meetings of the Task Force were held to assess the progress and to identify issues, if any.

Also since  the  involvement  of  State  Government  is  vital  for  the  implementation  of DAS, Ministry had got state and District level nodal officers nominated.  2 workshops of the State level nodal officers and 11 of State/District level nodal officers were held to acquaint them about their role. 12 Regional Units have been established for coordination.  A multilingual toll free helpline (1800 180 4343) has been established to answer queries of the all stakeholders.  A  Management  Information  System  (MIS)  has  been  deployed  for  online collection of status of installation of STBs by different operators.

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