Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Indian Regulator Proposes IPTV Rules

TRAI, the regulator in India, has issued recommendations for rules for IPTV services in India. These recommendations state that IPTV providers can offer only broadcast channels that have been approved by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. They also recommend a technical change that includes the IPTV providers in the companies that can receive broadcast feeds.

These recommendations also would permit cable companies and larger Internet providers to also offer IPTV services without any additional licensing.

These draft recommendations are being put on the TRAI website inviting further comments from stakeholders. After this TRAI will issue the final recommendations to the Government.

These recommendations seem straightforward. They permit IPTV services to operate and give the cable companies the right to create their own IPTV services.

In fact cable companies, particularly in Europe, are starting to deploy telco style broadband and IPTV services rather than expanding their cable networks and buying unbundled loops from the incumbent telco for these services.

I would appreciate comments from readers in India about these regulations.

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