TRAI Order on DTH Has Evolved to Rain Heavily on Subscribers’ Pockets

TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) introduced the New Tariff Order back in 2020; however, at the time, the regulator was very optimistic about it. So, were the subscribers of DTH services were as well. After all, as the regulator, the responsibility that rests with TRAI is to protect the consumer interests. During the time, the most positive point about the NTO was its ability to let the consumers choose the channels that they want to watch and nothing else. The subscribers finally had the freedom to pay only for the channels that they wanted. However, on the flip side, many surveys and observations revealed that the NTO did not only bring choice to the customers, but it also brought havoc on their bills which increased by quite a margin. Now, more than a year later from the last update, it’s quite possible that the nightmare of TRAI NTO might be worsening for some of the subscribers.

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The National Tariff Order in Brief

The first thing to note about the National Tariff Order from TRAI is that it makes a split between the cable operator and broadcaster, wherein the DTH operators are paid for carrying the channels and providing the bandwidth for the same using their satellites and set-ups. Whereas the broadcasters are paid for the channels depending on the number of subscribers they get. From a bird’s eye view, this arrangement seems very convenient. However, the trouble begins to surface when the customers realise that they have to purchase the channel capacity from the cable or DTH operators at premium costs, most of the time which is fixed at the maximum allowed, i.e. Rs 130 per month for 100 channels.