Arasu Cable TV Corp granted DAS licence
Posted on: 19/Apr/2017 7:01:43 PM
The central government has given an interim approval to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited with the condition that the company should entirely change over to the digital mode from the present analogue mode.
However, an additional condition is also included that the decision on the approval for conversion to digital mode will still be based on the final decision by the central government.
The central government has given an interim approval to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited go ahead with the conversion to digital mode under the DAS Licence (Digital Addressable System) under certain conditions.
As the central government decided to go by the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) regulation that public sector undertaking including government organisations should not enter the cable TV industry, there is a condition that this approval may get automatically cancelled.
While the entire nation is progressing on the digitalisation mode, the Chennai High Court had ordered that the existing analogue cable TV mode should not be disturbed until a final decision is taken on the licence for Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited.
It is mentioned on the approval that only due to this above reason, a time of 3 months is given to convert entirely into digital mode.
There are 1 crore cable TV connections in the state of Tamil Nadu. The set-top boxes required for the change over to digital mode are usually procured from China. In this situation, it is understood that it may take a minimum period of 1 year for the company to change over to digital mode.
As such, it is impossible to complete digital conversion of 1 Crore connections in 3 months, Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited is said to approach the court seeking time extension for this project so that the cable TV service is not disturbed for the public.
Further, there is a condition that the approval/licence will expire automatically if the conversion is not completed within 3 months. In case this happens, all the investments made for digitalisation including the purchase of set-top boxes (costing Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2000) will go waste.
It is expected that all the related issue will get amicably solved only if the central government gives an extension of time and permanent licence to Arasu Cable TV Corporation.
