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?
I'm however not sure whether we've universal set top boxes already.
We have the tech to implement them, but unfortunately they are not 'ready'.Kaustubh KatdareI'm however not sure whether we've universal set top boxes already.
A few days ago, I read about a Samsung hybrid Set Top Box.
I believe this is the product: https://www.samsung.com/global/business/set-top-box/
We could use something on those lines in all households across India.
PS: The idea of an universal set top box also rings a bell about the next electronics project.
There's an IEEE paper on the same too: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=5722661
My guess is that once you switch from say Tata Sky to Airtel, your set top box will be updated with the latest firmware from Airtel. But again, it all looks bit complicated to me.
Yes... this seems complicated. Or, may be menu and everything will be the same just channel shuffle. Remote is also coupled with software.Kaustubh KatdareI'm not quite sure how easy it will be to implement this - because the software provided by the DTH service providers is vastly different.
I am quite sure this is quite genius task to work out with existing remote+box,
A very welcome step that will sure help the hapless customer to choose the best and economical DTH service. This will definitely eliminate current tyranny of forcing unwanted channels by providers on the throats of customers who have no powers now to have a day in such matters. Request TRAI to enforce this forthwith.
@Pragasam Narayana Swamy True. This would indeed be a welcome move and all consumers will rejoice.
Unless STB are standardised like mobile phones ( where the simple SIM defines the operator), migration between TV providers will be a dream.
TRAI had raised this issue about a decade ago, but the TV group is a strong lobby.
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