Set top box (DTH) portability in India - What we need to know.
Most middle class households in India have installed the set top boxes (STBs)for their televisions and every time we hear about the rates and offers on a DTH operator's box installed in the neighbours house. Ever since, the Direct-to-home (DTH) services have been introduced, there's been a stiff war between the leading companies to bring newer and more channels at a cheaper plan. There's too many operators out there and choosing one of them (from say Tata Sky, Videocon D2H, Airtel Digital, Big TV or Sun Direct) and sticking to that service only because the installation charges are too high (typically between Rs. 1,500-7,000) is not really a good idea.
Well, I just read the good news today morning that the set-top-box portability in India is soon to be a reality. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has paid attention to a petition filed by cable operator about the environmental damage caused by disposing of the old STBs is too high and the statistics suggest that there are approx. 2 million dead boxes in India. The hardware from one operator has to go (to become scrap) as the consumer has no choice but to buy a set top box from another operator. Designed to be proprietary in nature, the STBs we use today only work with a single DTH network.
^ Doing that also constitutes for major license violation.
With the new directives from the Centre, set top box portability should arrive all over India within next 6 months. This just means that like MNP or Mobile Number Portability, we will be able to use the STBs that can be changed to a different DTH provider upon changing subscriptions.
I believe the guidelines and the step by step process of 'How to enable set top box portability' or 'How to port my set top box to new DTH operator' should soon arrive next.
What are your thoughts on the STB portability?
