TV Viewers Can Switch DTH Companies Without Buying New Set-Top-Boxes: TRAI To Bring Interoperability Rule By Year-End

India is set to experience Interoperability on Set-Top-Boxes on the similar lines of Mobile Service Providers. Speaking to ET Telecom, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chief RS Sharma said "TV viewers in India will be able to interchange their set-top-boxes. This means that subscribers will be able to switch to other DTH service providers without needing to buy a new one. This new rule will be brought into practice by the end of this year with the help of required technology."

He also said “Since last two years we have been trying to make STBs interoperable. A large part of the problem has been resolved. There are some business challenges (which) remain.. we are looking at this to happen by the end of this year.”

The TRAI also released a study concerning an open ecosystem for cellular devices in India. The research was done together by Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) and consultant firm KPMG, and it showed that 89 per cent of phones in the country work on open source operating systems. The study has also indicated that smartphone sales in India increased massively from 2 million units in 2009-10 to 117 million units in 2017-18

With a compound annual growth rate of 37 per cent, India's massive smartphone market outranked US to take the second spot in the world. The report also said that the manufacturing of Open OS handsets had created around 550,000 direct or indirect jobs in India.