TDSAT Seminar, Jaipur- 18 January 2014

On 18 January TDSAT held its seminar for consumer contact on 18 January 2014 in Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur. These seminars held regularly throughout the year in different cities of the country are aimed at discussing consumer issues in broadcasting and telecom sectors. The seminars also help to educate young lawyers and local stakeholders in understanding the dispute settlement process in the telecom and broadcasting sector.

Many eminent judges of Supreme Court and High Court are invited to speak on different subjects of judicial syste m in the country in this seminar.

 The Jaipur Seminar was inaugurated by Hon’ble Mr Justice CK Prasad, judge, Supreme Court of India who was the chief guest at the event. After the welcome address by Mr Kuldeep Singh, Member, TDSAT, Mr MF Farooqui, Secretary, Department of Telecom, Hon’ble Mr Justice Mohammed Rafiq, Judge, Rajasthan High Court and Hon’ble Mr Justice Amitava Roy, Chief Justice, Rajasthan High Court spoke on different aspects of dispute settlement in India. Justice Amitava Roy was a special guest at the occasion. After the morning session addresses, Hon’ble Mr Justice CK Prasad, Judge Supreme Court of India addressed the audience. 

  Inaugural address was delivered by Hon’ble Mr Justice AK Patnaik, Judge, Supreme Court of India. Hon’ble Mr Justice Aftab Alam, Chairperson TDSAT gave the concluding remarks. Vote of thanks was delivered by Mr DP De, Advisor, TDSAT. 

Sr Advocate Mr Sriram Panchu gave a very elaborate presentation on the Mediation System in Telecom & Broadcasting Sectors. Mr Ashok Mansukhani, President MSO Alliance spoke on ‘Digital Addressable Cable TV System’(DAS). He talked about various issues causing hurdles in implementation of DAS and apprised the delegates of anomalies in the regulatory system for DAS implementation. Challenges in regulating the DAS process are given in the box on this page. 

After the inaugural presentations, business session commenced with a discussion on “Regulatory Framework and Dispute Resolution in the Telecom, Broadcasting and Cable service sector.” Panel of eminent speakers included Mr AK Bhargava, CGM, BSNL. Mr Wasi Ahm ad, Advisor (B&CS), TRAI, Mr Sanjeev Banzal, Advisor(NSL), TRAI, Mr. C. S. Rao, President AUSPI, Mr. Rajan S Mathews Director General COAI, Mr. Ashok Mansukhani, President MSO Alliance, Ms. Roop Sharma, President, Cable Operators Federation of India, Mr. Liyakat Ali, Secretary, Upbhokta Margdarshan Samiti, Rajasthan and Mr. Sriram Panchu, Senior Advocate and Mediator. The session was moderated by Mr Manjul Bajpai, President, Telecom lawyers Association. 

Discussion started with a powerful power point presentation by Mrs Roop Sharma who highlighted the sad state of affairs of the ongoing mandatory digitisation that has pushed all the last mile operators to the wall. She told the judicial luminaries that regulations and tariff orders framed by TRAI were very unfair to the LCOs/LMOs who are now fighting for their survival.

There were more than 100 independent MSOs and LMO/LCOs attending the seminar. They presented their problems in the question hour session asking the panellists for a solution. During lunch time Mr Wasi Ahmad of TRAI was encircled by all local MSOs/LCOs who wanted to know how TRAI can help them against the high handedness of pay channel aggregators and MSOs who were trying to create large monopolies in the market and who had been helped maximum by the government as well as the regulator.

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/shows-or-launch-events/item/4249-tdsat-seminar,-jaipur-18-january-2014.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/shows-or-launch-events/item/4249-tdsat-seminar,-jaipur-18-january-2014.html