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Business News/ Companies / News/  Arasu Cable files case against Trai for transmission of cable signals
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Arasu Cable files case against Trai for transmission of cable signals

Arasu Cable also sought to block Trai from taking any action against the cable network for provision of analog signals

A screen grab of Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corp website.Premium
A screen grab of Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corp website.

Chennai: State-run Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corp. approached the Madras high court on Wednesday to restrain the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from interfering with the transmission of its cable TV signals in Chennai.

Arasu Cable also sought to block the regulator from taking any action against the cable network for provision of analog signals. On 10 December, Trai said the transmission of analog signals was illegal in Chennai and that digitization had to be implemented at the earliest, failing which cable TV connections could be be switched off any time.

The case came for hearing on Thursday and Arasu Cable TV’s counsel argued that the cable sector was unorganized in Tamil Nadu and that the state government was providing the cable service at Rs70 per month in public interest. On 5 July, 2012, Arasu Cable had applied for a digital cable licence, but is yet to get one.

In 2008, Trai had recommended that government entities must not be given a licence to run cable network as it leads to control on what people watch.

“The Union government was well aware that nowhere in the world was a welfare measure of transmitting cable TV programmes at Rs70 available, and it was only due to political and commercial reasons prevailing in the state that it deliberately did not want to issue a DAS (digital addressable system) licence to the petitioner," argued the Arasu cable’s counsel.

On the other hand, it was trying to implement digitalization through Trai, despite being aware that the matter was before the courts.

Chennai was supposed to be digitized like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata during the first phase of digitisation last year but the matter is pending before the Madras high court.

Till the matter is disposed of by the court, digitisation cannot be forced on the petitioner, added Arasu Cable counsel.

(PTI contributed to this copy)

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Published: 19 Dec 2013, 09:31 PM IST
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