Support Telecomtalk
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has said that it plans to roll out interoperability of set-top-boxes by the end of this year, ET Brand Equity reported. When interoperability comes into play, the subscribers of DTH operators will be able to change their service provider without needing to change the set-top-box. Presently, if a subscriber wishes to switch his service provider, then he or she is required to change his set-top-box as well. As per Trai’s statement, the process will be as simple as sending an SMS, and after that, the customers will be required to fill an application form which will enable them to migrate to a new DTH provider without changing their set-top-box.
- Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
-
-
Interoperability to Be Launched by Year-End
Trai chairman, RS Sharma said about this, “Trai is scheduled to launch the process for subscribers to shift (or port) to new distribution platform operators (DPOs). We are likely to launch the new portability regime by December this year.” According to Trai, the new technology for interoperability will rely on a smart card which will store all the operator specific requirements, and all the generic details will be stored in the set-top-box. So, when subscribers make the switch to another DTH service provider, they will only have to change the smart card and not the box itself.
If currently, subscribers decide to get a new connection they have to shell out around Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,600 to get a new connection, this being one of the reasons why subscribers are often reluctant to change their service provider. However, once interoperability equipped set-top-boxes come into the picture, these costs will be cut down as subscribers won’t have to change their set-top-box, but they will only have to pay for the smart card.
