With a few days left for the deadline of the first phase of digitisation, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s control room is buzzing with calls from consumers. Officials said they were receiving an average of 300 calls a day, not only from the four metros but other parts of the country too. The control centre is linked to a toll-free number and has been set up to answer consumer queries on digitisation.

While queries range from set-top box, package prices and digitisation, there are complaints about high set-top box prices and other technical issues. Besides Ministry officials, the control room is manned by executives from Multi-System Operators such as DEN, Hathway, InCablenet and WWIL.

Ministry officials are also conducting field surveys, especially in New Delhi and Kolkata, on deployment of set-top boxes and consumer awareness, with MSOs, DTH players and others giving daily reports.

According to latest Government estimates, Mumbai has achieved nearly complete digitisation, New Delhi nearly 87 per cent, Kolkata is 82 per cent digitised, while Chennai is at 85 per cent. These figures include DTH subscribers. Overall, about 89 per cent homes across the four cities have gone digital.

In Chennai, while cable digitisation is slower, officials said the city had higher DTH penetration. While 100 per cent digitisation will be a big challenge, a senior official said that 5-7 per cent households might face a blackout.

The Tamil Nadu Government has written to the Ministry seeking deadline extension, but the Centre is firm on October 31, sources said.

>Meenakshi.v@thehindu.co.in

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