The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has already rolled out an affordable pricing model for the broadcasting services. Now they are taking initiatives in enabling portability of DTH services.

By the end of this year, the regulator is scheduled to launch a service that would provide the customers with the option of switching their DTH/cable service providers without changing the set-top box.

Here is a detailed report on the same

Current Scenario

According to a recent report, an excess of 160 million Indians uses DTH services from leading providers like Tata Sky, Dish TV, and Airtel. The connections are installed with the company set-top boxes configured with their parent software and security protocols.

When a customer signs up for a DTH service, he or she goes into a locking period with their provider just like a person using a locked device.

Hence, there you hardly get the chance to port your operator.

Since your set-top boxes are locked, you don’t get the ideal opportunity to migrate to another device. It means you are not wholly using the operator service, you need to invest your hard-earned money once again in another DTH provider and its set-top box.

However, a new provision is yet to be exercised- the interchangeability of set-top boxes. In recent years, the operators and broadcasters have strongly opposed the introduction of portability service of DTH and cable services. According to TRAI chairman, RS Sharma, with the launch of inter-operable set-top boxes, an open environment can be created. The brand new open set-top box system is already in the making, and soon it will be announced in the market.

Functioning of inter-operable set-top boxes

According to the TRAI chairman, inter-operable set-top boxes will come with an option for downloading your prefered operator software.
This means you can independently purchase a Set-top box from the market. Then you can ask your selected service provider to upload his software on the box.

Date of Launch

According to Times of India, the inter-operable system is going to be launched in the Indian market towards the end of 2019. It is significant to mention that the development and deployment of inter-operable set-top boxes come with a unique set of challenges and TRAI is working in coordination with the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDoT) and nodal agencies to make their dreams get realised in the market.

The project is slightly longer than expected, and within this year, it is going to see the light of the day.