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Cable TV operators have expressed interest in offering broadband services in rural areas in a bid to generate additional revenues.
The Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) along with the Internet Service Providers Association of India is developing a proposal that will identify the large network of cable operators present across the villages and smaller towns.
Various models
Besides identifying the large network of independent cable operators across the region, it will also look into various models of collaboration between the two.
Roop Sharma, President of Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI), said, “Cable operators will earn extra revenues if they are able to offer broadband to villages and Panchyats. We also believe there is no need for duplication of infrastructure considering cable operators already have fibre optical network in every nook and corner of the country.” Since digitisation uses compression technology, it creates more space for television channels, value-added services and broadband. In fact in markets such as North America and European countries, broadband penetration is largely driven through biggies in the cable space like Liberty Inc among others.
There are several State-level cable operators who reach to millions of users. These cables can be used for broadband services but the problem is that not many of them have telecom licences.
According to the Department of Telecom, the cable TV operators cannot offer broadband services or bill end users. “The cable TV operators own the users but they cannot bill. We are telling the Government to include them in the optical fibre cable project. The Internet Service providers can offer them the bandwidth at the backend,” said Rajesh Chharia, President, ISPAI.
Proposal sought
Both COFI and ISPAI had raised this issue at a recent meeting held to discuss the progress of the optical fibre project. The Telecom Ministry has asked them to send in a detailed proposal.
Several large multi-system operators such as DEN and Hathway already have licences to offer broadband connections to consumers, which allows the operators to reduce the cost of reaching a household considering a single wire offers three services and helps improves profit margins. This also helps cable companies and MSOs to differentiate from Direct-to-Home service providers.
Globally too, cable operators provide bundled cable, broadband and phone services.
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