While challenging the TRAIs tariff order in TDSAT, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation said that the tariff order clearly violates the Article 12 of the constitutions by trying to draw an equalized equation between the unequals. DAS(Digital Addressable System) in India is still evolving.
Mr. Abhishek Malhotra also expressed his ire against the TRAIs stand, which, he said, is contrary to the stand taken 10 years ago. The argument put forward in front of the TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) is that the commercial subscribers cannot be charged at par with the domestic ones.
A special bench of members was appointed to hear the petition by IBF which challenged the DAS tariff order issued earlier this year. TRAI has mentioned in this tariff order that commercial establishments which don't charge extra to customers for TV services can be treated as ordinary subscribers and made to pay at par with a home user on a per TV basis.
Telecom Operators like BSNL have already been charging the commercial connections at premium and it won’t be a surprising if the MSOs start doing the same with the cable connections. At the end of the day the burden of the premium costs is sure to be passed on to the customers of the commercial establishments.
