90 Million Subscribers Have Migrated To New System, Made Their Channel Choices, Says TRAI Chairman 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that over half of the 170 million customers have submitted their channel preferences based on the new pricing framework, Telecom Talk reports. Of this 90 million, 65 million users are cable TV users, and the rest 25 million are Direct-to--Home (DTH) subscribers.

PTI quoted TRAI Chairman RS Sharma as saying, “The speed (of onboarding) has increased as per our data, and we expect the rest to also register their choice of channels soon.”

“Out of the total 170 million TV homes (which includes 70 million DTH homes and 100 million cable TV homes), about 90 million homes have already registered their choice with the operators, which is a big number,” he said.

People will make their channel choices when their long and short duration packs end as the DTH is a prepaid model. Sharma noted that TRAI is guiding and aiding operators whenever required and are also calling for regular meetings to clarify issues.

TRAI is planning to increase efforts on reaching customers and bringing awareness via social media, print, advertisements, jingles and other programmes. The regulator has also said Network Capacity Fee (NCF) is not compulsory for multiple TVs in a household and also allows individual set-up boxes (STBs) to have their separate channel choices.

TRAI has also said operators can offer uniform discounts in a specific location on multiple connections. He said the regulatory body had received responses from three different operators on providing special schemes for multi-connection homes, but currently, it feels there is no need to intervene in the matter.