On hold

Calcutta, August 2: Viewers will have to wait till next year to access Internet protocol television or IPTV.

“There are still some issues regarding convergence which need to be sorted out at the central level between telecom authorities and the ministry of information and broadcasting. We also could not engage Zee for Calcutta as a result of which services suffered,” said S.K. Chakravarty, chief general manager of Calcutta Telephones, at an interactive session organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce.

In Calcutta, IPTV had undergone a pilot launch last year in August and has been able to get around 200 subscribers. The rollout involved an investment of Rs 30 crore.

“The technology is ready. Along with BSNL in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, we have decided to purchase broadcast equipment so that we can directly tie up with broadcasters. The channels are ready to tie up directly with us because it ensures a nationwide network. The coverage becomes limited when other partners, such as content providing companies, come into the picture. We plan to leverage our 1.5 lakh broadband subscribers for IPTV connections as soon as the equipment is in place,” said Chakravarty.

According to recent reports, the ministry of information and broadcasting has accepted recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for IPTV with a few changes.

As part of the recommendations, uplinking and downlinking norms will be amended to enable all broadcasters to provide signals to distributors of TV channels, including IPTV operators. Trai has also received a consensus from broadcasters to adopt a non-discriminatory price regime on the composition and pricing of channels for IPTV services.

New billing system

BSNL is also investing Rs 365 crore to set up call detail record billing and customer relationship management services in the eastern region.