India Legal Bureau
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has put out a pre-consultation paper on “Infrastructure Sharing in the Broadcasting TV Distribution Sector”. It has invited written comments from stakeholders by 23rd June 2016.
According to TRAI, the “pre-consultation paper has been issued with an aim to solicit stakeholder’s views on issues related to sharing of infrastructure on voluntary basis and separation of network and service provider functions so as to reduce cost of distribution of services and enhance competition in respect of all type of TV distribution platforms.”
The paper refers to the guidelines for grant of permission to establish and operate HITS (headend-in-the Sky Broadcasting Service) in India issued on November 26, 2009. These guidelines provide two modes of operation. According to the report, there is scope in the second mode of operation for the HITS operator to provide passive infrastructure to other MSOs (Multi System Operators) for uplinking/downlinking their aggregated content.
The basic premise of the paper is that most of the satellite TV channels re-transmitted by DTH (direct to home)/HITS operators are replicated, which results in inefficient use of satellite transponders. Therefore, there exists a possibility of sharing of transponder space by different DTH and HITS operators.
At present, most of the operators re-transmit signals of TV channels using either dedicated fibers or by taking bandwidth on lease from infrastructure providers. Since the optical fiber does not have bandwidth constraints, the same optical fiber can carry signals of two or more set of streams of TV channels. Sharing of common transport stream by multiple operators can also reduce the requirement of bandwidth for transmission.
Further, there is scope for sharing of infrastructure used for the delivery of broadcasting TV services, such as satellite transponders, earth station, head-end facility, etc used by DTH, HITS and MSO.
This may reduce CAPEX and OPEX for operators and lead to more competition. The possibilities of separating network and service provider functions at distributor level have been set out to increase efficiency in distribution of broadcasting services.
The enabling of infrastructure sharing using HITS platform may help in making the DAS operations economically viable in rural/remote areas and faster digitalization of TV services. Similarly, in DTH, the transponder space saved due to sharing of infrastructure may be utilized for meeting requirements of other important communication needs, including provision of broadband services, especially in hilly and remote areas. The saving will also reduce the outgo in the foreign exchange as most of the satellite capacities are provided by foreign satellite operators.
The questions for consultation in these areas are: in addition to sharing of infrastructure, what more can be shared by DPO for better utilization of infrastructure; what are operational, commercial, technical and regulatory issues which require to be addressed that will help to frame policy for infrastructure sharing; is there any requirement for change in the existing licensing/registration framework laid for DTH, DAS and HITS broadcasting services; and what could be the implications of allowing separation of network and service provider functions at distribution level? How can the responsibilities be divided between the network and service providers?
Any other issues of relevance to infrastructure sharing and separation of network and service provider functions in the TV distribution sector are also welcomed.
Comments, preferably in electronic form, may be sent by stakeholders to Sunil Kumar Singhal, Advisor (B&CS), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on sksinghal@trai.gov.in or gs.kesarwani@trai.gov.in
For any clarification/information, Sunil Kumar Singhal, Advisor (B&CS) may be contacted at 91-11-23221509, Fax: +91-11-2322044.
23rd June, 2016 is the last date for sending in comments.
The full text of the paper can be found at:-
http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/WhatsNew/Documents/Pre_consultation_paper_23_May_2016.pdf