Delhi HC seeks Trai's response on MSOs plea
Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the All India Digital Cable Federation’s (AIDCF) petition alleging that the telecom regulator did not consider all its issues in the consultation paper ‘Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services" including the demand of Multi System Operators (MSOs) to make their own bouquet of TV channels.
While Trai had on August 8 issued the consultation paper on issues pertaining to tariff, interconnection and quality of service of broadcasting and cable services, the Consultation Paper “fails to meet the standard of transparency,” the cable body stated in its petition filed through counsel Swapnil Gupta.
Terming the “narrowed scope of the impugned Consultation Paper” as being “irrational” and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, the cable body said its demand for combining different offerings of broadcasters will reduce consumer cost and allow a more diverse offering to be made.
According to the federation, the issues were not considered by Trai despite positive recommendation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to include the issues raised by AIDCF in the consultation paper.
