DTH operators urge TRAI to increase licence validity period

Direct-to-home (DTH) operators have urged the Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI) to increase their licence period from the current 10 years. 

While Dish TV and Videocon d2h have requested the sector regulator to increase the validity of DTH licences for a period of 15 years, others like Airtel Digital TV, Sun Direct and Reliance Digital TV want the permission to last for 20 years. 

Responding to TRAI’s consultation paper on issue of extension of DTH licence, the DTH operators have also pressed the regulator to have an automatic licence renewal clause in the DTH guidelines. 

Airtel Digital TV has suggested that the authority should increase the validity period to 20 years through an amendment in the licences instead of issuing a new one. 

The licence agreement must be a provision for renewal of validity of 10 years at one time in the future, Airtel Digital TV added. 

Videocon d2h has suggested that the minimum period of DTH licences for the existing licencees should be 15 years with a renewal clause built-in in the licence agreement. 

Dish TV is of the opinion that the existing DTH licencees should be given a licence with a validity of 15 years. Further, an appropriate amendment should be made in the DTH guidelines, prescribing a period of 15 years for the renewal of the DTH licences on their expiry. 

Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct have said that licence period for DTH operators should be the same as that for unified licencees, which is 20 years. DTH, it said, is a “bearer service” similar to the service provided under unified licence. 

The existing DTH guidelines provide for the issue of a licence for 10 years. However, they do not explicitly provide for an extension or a renewal, implying that at the end of the 10-year period of validity, the licence expires. This leaves the DTH operators in a state of quandary. 

A 10-year period, DTH operators contend, is too short a time for a customer-centric service like DTH since it creates uncertainty in business model and inhibits futuristic business plans like deploying new technology or long term capacity enhancement. 

Additionally, a DTH service not only requires huge investments at the time of setting up the infrastructure at the operator end but also at subsequent stages of operations as huge subsidies are pumped in to acquire customers. 

The DTH operators have also urged TRAI to implement the information and broadcasting ministry’s decision and its recommendation dated 15 April 2008 to reduce the licence fee from 10 per cent to 6 per cent.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/dth-news/item/3485-dth-operators-urge-trai-to-increase-licence-validity-period.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/dth-news/item/3485-dth-operators-urge-trai-to-increase-licence-validity-period.html