Praveen Chitnis
MSOs are not giving any official acknowledgement to LCO for number of boxes given, hence LCO is not able to provide bill to his costumer. The forms are provided by MSO and for their own Data. There is no guarantee that the MSO will declare the full connectivity to Government.
No one is adhering to the TRAI Taffic Orders. Even in Metros where it is almost six months since the implementation the MSO continue to charge lump sum amount and there is utter confusion due to this hurried implementation on an issue thatcertinly is not a National priority.
Lowest quality Chinese made boxes are being imported, at consumer cost, and he will have to bear the consequences on the service he receives.
Pay channels are still continuing to do deals with control rooms on an ad hoc basis and so the very reasons given for the compulsory implementation of digitisation cannot be justified any more.
All that is being achieved in this hurried manner of implementation is that MSOs are locking the consumers to their services by forcing them to buy the boxes which are not interoperable. LCO has now lost his business as he has reached a point of no return by installing the STBs and now if he decides to start his own control room he will have to bear the whole cost of the boxes on his own which goes into crores. This is leading to total monopoly of the business in the hands of powerful people who will dictate their own terms.
All these procedures go against the very Constitution of this country that give the right to an individual to go business of his own to earn livelihood. A very bigger issue being ignored is that every box will consume about 20 watts of power. One can calculate the extra power requirement for millions of boxes that have to remain switched on. Even in the daytime this boxes will be on or on stand by. This is a burden on the natural resources of this country and a monumental waste, all to cover up for the corruption in the government where by tax inspectors lack the will to go about counting the true connecvtivity of the operators preferring to compromise for reasons which are obvious.
On the subject of national security the digital control room is IP based and can be hacked by any outsider from any country to send deadly messages to a particular box and no one would know. While analogue is tranparent in that any such act is detecetd instantly as everyone views the message.
So there are many issues and this hurried approach of Government is causing huge losses that will get exposed only after the damage is done.
Ministry is trying again to misguide the courts by submitting a copy of order, whereby the Petitioner Bhawani Cable, an MSO had asked for extension of deadline and causing confusion. The very Act can be challenged. They claim that it is in Public Interest while I state that it is absolutely against Public Interest causing uncalled for depletion of Natural Resources and waste of almost 20% of the cost of the TV sets purchased. Such high resolution TV transmission is of no use for the small Chinese TVs purchased by the poor man as these are purely Analogue based circuitry. There are many reasons including Digitization being a National Security threat that does not support the contention that Digitization is in the interest of the Public. Only Metros and where ever elite of the Society reside will benefit, but by choice. So the economical option should be available for the poor and the ones who by choice do not want the upgradation of cable services. Even many rich people prefer the Analogue because of the ease of use and not having to handle two remotes.
No comments:
Post a Comment