The Maharashtra Cable Operators’ Foundation has given a clarion call to LCOs to act immediately to safeguard their very existence and business. The President of the Foundation, Mr. A.R. Prabhoo has written an open letter dated 1st December, criticizing the callous attitude of TRAI citing the recent affidavit it has submitted in Bombay High Court and termed it as unacceptable to the cable fraternity.
He was referring to the ongoing litigation filed by LCOs before the Hon. High Court at Mumbai challenging some of the Provisions of NTO. The MCOF will be filing its rejoinder to TRAI’s reply through its Lawyers. “Even though the filing of an Affidavit does not mean that, the Hon. Court would accept it. We are optimistic that our counter Affidavit will be a fitting reply to the numerous erroneous Statements made by TRAI” Mr. Prabhoo said in his letter that was releases with a view to alert all the LCOs on underlying message in the TRAI’s reply.
He said that the LCOs have blindly believed that TRAI will protect the interests of the LCOs but the real face of TRAI was shown in its affidavit to the Bombay High Court was entirely different. Despite the fact that the representatives of LCOs were called for during Open Forum and mentioned in Consultation Papers, have completely disconnected the LCOs. “The Affidavit makes us believe that TRAI does not recognise the role we have been playing and will continue to play as Last Mile Owners. TRAI has renamed us as mere “conduits” between MSOs and the Subscribers” Mr Prabhoo said in his letter.
He has brought out three major issues in his letter, claiming that these are very much dangerous to the existence of LCOs or LMOs.
i. Subscriber ownership is assumed to be of the MSO.
ii. It is not the concern of TRAI whether or what the LCO gets out of the revenues
iii. The self-made businesses, are now treated as mere Recharge Agents of mobile phones. The views and suggestions of the Last mile Owners will not matter at all.
According to Mr. Prabhoo, TRAI has conferred the credit for creating Infrastructure to the MSOs. “This is factually incorrect and cursory statement fails to define what TRAI means by infrastructure. The statement simply means that the Lakhs of Kilometres of Network all of us have put together, is shown as created and owned by MSO” he said. If this is accepted, the LCOs feel that they stand to lose over Rs.1 lakh crore plus infrastructure, which the MSOs may consider their own property.
It has also been observed that to justify its judgemental errors, TRAI has overlooked the imbalance where benefits flow to Broadcasters and MSOs at the cost of LCOs regardless of whether subscriber pays more or less than pre-NTO days. According to Mr. Prabhoo, Broadcasters will save on Carriage Fees with Slots in Basic Bouquet going up by 125 and MSOs will make more money from Carriage, even if per LCN rate falls, with the 125 new slots opened for renting out. It ignores that LCO gets ZERO Paisa and worse still shuts door on opportunity to get some share from Additional Channel Subscription.
“The unsubstantiated justification for reducing NCF on additional STB completely overlooks that 90%+ STBs are serviced by the LCO who incurs per visit costs that are not billed for” , he claimed in his letter to the LCOs.
Whether LCO earns or not, if he earns whether it is fair reward for his Investments and recurring expenses was neither thought about while promulgating NTO nor is it rectified in any manner in the Affidavit filed. On the contrary, TRAI has worsened the situation of the LCOs by making assertive statements going against their interests.
Mr. Prabhoo has called upon the LCOs to lodge strong protests with TRAI and make TRAI file a revised Affidavit rectifying statements that favour MSO and hurt LCO community as a first step to restore sense of level playing field that TRAI is expected to establish. He asked them to write to TRAI in their own language and convey their own feelings from the bottom of their heart rather than submitting a signed memorandum. He hoped that TRAI would correct its course after reading all these representations.
Giving a call to all the LCOs, Prabhoo said,“ come, be more united in action than in thoughts. Do not wait for miracles to happen or representatives to fight the battle on your behalf. This is matter of your livelihood and assets, do not sleep while it is under threat of being snatched away”
- Advertisement -
