High Court directions to TRAI with regard to Arasu Corporation
Posted on: 21/Dec/2013 12:56:40 PM
TRAI has issued a Press release on December 10, 2013, conveying that in Chennai Metro Area transmission of analog signals is illegal and the digitalization has to be implemented immediately. The State-run Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking to restrain Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from taking any action to switch of the analogue cable TV signal in Chennai Metropolitan area while its application for DAS (digital addressable system) license is pending with the central government.
The case came for hearing on Thursday and Arasu Cable TV’s counsel argued that the cable sector was unorganized in Tamil Nadu and that the state government was providing the cable service at Rs70 per month in public interest. On 5 July, 2012, Arasu Cable had applied for a digital cable license, but is yet to get one. Chennai was supposed to be digitized like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata during the first phase of digitization last year but the matter is pending before the Madras high court.
Till the matter is disposed of by the court, digitization cannot be forced on the petitioner, added Arasu Cable counsel.
