(12 January 2009 7:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India today extended to 23 January the last date for receiving comments on its consultation paper relating to Interconnection Issues about Broadcasting and Cable Services.

In a release, Trai said the consultation paper had been issued on 15 December and the comments had been sought by 12 January but the date was being extended as some stakeholders wanted more time.

In the consultation paper, Trai had said there had been a marked increase in deployment of addressable platforms for distribution of TV channels in recent past. IPTV services and voluntary Cas had been rolled out by many service providers. In the near future, head-end in the sky (HITS) and mobile TV services are also likely to be available.

The Authority had issued The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection Regulation 2004 in December 2004 to provide for a regulatory framework for interconnection in respect of broadcasting and cable services.

The Register of Interconnect Agreements (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Regulation 2004 was issued on 31 December 2004 to provide for maintenance of a Register of Interconnect Agreements. These Regulations have been amended from time to time for amplification and modification of the existing provisions and to cover some new issues that had not been covered in the Regulations till then. Such amendments are necessitated by changes over time in the broadcasting and cable services sector on account of changes in technology and changes in market conditions.

The consultation paper was also being issued to ensure that the regulations evolve in step with the new developments in the broadcasting sector and to look at possible ways of filling the gaps in the existing regulatory provisions in the aforementioned Regulations and to deal with new issues arising with the ever increasing sophistication of technology and changes in market conditions.