Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister Prakash Javadekar has stated the government is planning to bring set-top box portability to the country, otherwise called “inter-operability”. This will enable consumers to change their service providers by just replacing the chip-enabled card rather than having to buy set-top box every time they change the service provider.
“Like portability of mobile phones, the viewers should also have similar options with the set-top boxes. They should be able to put in any card of choice (of service provider) on the set-top box,” Mr. Javadekar said.
The minister also said that the ministry is working towards bringing complete benefits of digitisation to the consumers with a high quality service at affordable price points. The cap of 12 minutes of advertisement on Free-to-Air(FTA) channels might be removed soon too. This is because the move came out as “restrictive” to FTA when compared to their pay channel counterparts which make money through subscription.
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12 Comments on "Set-top box portability might soon become a reality"
Why are people discussing MNP portability here whereas this thread is about “Set top Box” ?
By the way will this portability be applicable on old set top box also or we’ll have to buy new ones for this ?
What about portability from SD to HD STBs and vice versa ?
They should also bring landline number portability..
For those who are complaining the lack of inter circle portability, the new government after coming in power has told that this is a “high priority” implementation that must be completed by 31mar next year. So probably from april 1, you would be able to port your number in other circles too. 15Oct is the date of meeting of telecom commission and final decision might be taken on that day. Its also certain that DOT will accept all proposals of TRAI and operators will be given 6 month time for network changes.
Thank u very much for the update.