(7 October 2008 9:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) has directed Ushodaya Enterprises to activate the signals of its ETV group of channels to Den Networks.

While giving the order Tdsat chairperson Justice Arun Kumar said, “We accordingly direct the respondent Ushodaya Enterprises, on its responsibility, to ensure that the signals are received by the Den Netoworks to its complete satisfaction by 4 pm today. Wherever the signals are in MPEG-4 and decoders boxes and Sim cards are in MPEG-4 technology, the petitioner Den Networks should be able to receive the signals such that it can retransmit the same.”

In its petition, Den had submitted that Ushodaya had not activated the signals despite the orders of the tribunal on 30 September. The reconnection was supposed to be carried out within 24 hours.

The counsel for Ushodaya argued that Den has MPEG-2 decoders of ETV Marathi, ETV Gujarati and ETV Bangla and the decoders should be changed to MPEG-4 so as to receive uninterrupted signals.

The counsel for Den contested this argument and produced the MPEG-4 decoder box.