The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry has been taking it easy when it comes to execution of the regulator’s recommendations.
NEW DELHI: The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry has been taking it easy when it comes to execution of the regulator’s recommendations.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is particularly eager to see the implementation of digitalisation in the broadcasting sector as it could be the starting point for a ‘spectrum dividend’ system in India.
The concept of ‘spectrum dividend’ exists in some parts of the world. Under the system, a service provider using digital mode of transmission saves spectrum, and vacates all or some of it. Then a portion of the vacated spectrum is given back to that service provider. With that ‘spectrum dividend’, the service provider/broadcasting platform can further advance its services.
Of the 13 major Trai recommendations/proposals on the broadcasting sector since March 2006, only one has been accepted by the I&B ministry.
Only last month, the government issued guidelines for internet protocol television (IPTV) services, the recommendation for which was issued by Trai in January.
The recommendations on which there’s no government decision yet include convergence and competition, issues related to licensing of direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting, extension of conditional access system (CAS), introduction of headend in the sky (HITS), digitalisation, mobile television service, inter-operability in DTH, third phase of FM radio broadcasting, foreign investment limits across media segments, restructuring of cable TV services, and policy guidelines for TV audience measurement (TAM).
When asked about the status of the broadcasting sector vis-à-vis regulation, Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said “the government has to take decision now, particularly in areas where digitalisation has been recommended.”
He said those issues must get attended and addressed by the government, keeping the goal of digital mode of transmission by the year 2010 in mind.
Digital mode of transmission results in a lot of saving of spectrum because the bandwidth availability goes up. That spectrum can then be utilised by other services, said Misra. “Some advance countries are pursuing a system of spectrum dividend resulting from digitalisation,” he pointed out.
“This is the kind of thing that this country also needs to follow. And it is for this reason that digital transmission is very important,” according to Misra.
On whether the regulator is planning recommendations on `spectrum dividend’, Misra said, “we have only pointed out that the starting point of spectrum dividend is digital transmission.”
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