Exactly one month ahead of the July 1 deadline, nearly 90 per cent cable television users in Kolkata are yet to be digitised.
“Only 5 lakh out of an estimated 40 lakh cable TV users in the city have so far opted for digitised signal (through set-top box),” said Mr Swapan Chowdhury, Secretary of Kolkata-based Cable and Broadband Operators' Welfare Association. He was addressing an interactive session at the city-based Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
Despite advance payments by the cable operators and multi-system operators (MSO), inadequate supply of set-top boxes is becoming a cause of worry. “It is difficult to manage timely installations of set-top boxes, unless there is sufficient supply of set-top boxes,” Mr Chowdhury pointed out.
According to him, though it is mandated to complete digitisation according to the TRAI deadline, MSOs are fretful as large chunk of the households are still unaware of a mandatory digitisation.
He said TRAI's deadline was “impractical” and “it did not bother to hold an open discussion with cable operators and MSOs in all the metros before zeroing in on a decision.”
“TRAI has so far conducted a survey in Mumbai to ascertain the number of digitised households. It is expected to so the study in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata shortly,” Mr Chowdhury added.