TRAI's Draft interconnect agreement seeks stakeholder feedback by Jan 7

TRAI today released draft Model & Standard Interconnection Agreements between MSO and LeO offering cable TV services through Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) for seeking comments and counter comments from stakeholders.

The interconnection regulation for DAS provides that no MSO shall provide signal of TV channels to LeO without entering into written interconnection agreement. The interconnection regulation further provides that the interconnection agreement between the MSO and its linked Leo shall have the details of various activities rendered by LeO and MSOs, and the revenue settlement between the parties for these services. The regulatory framework applicable for DAS also provides that the revenue share between Leo and MSO shall be as agreement, TRAI has mandated the subscription revenue share between the MSO and the LeO as a fall back arrangement.

Recently, during January-October 2015, with an objective to enhance the awareness about the regulatory framework among stakeholders and to assess the compliance of the regulatory framework, TRAI held interaction with 10S and LeOs in the various parts of . 1 ~. the country. During these interactions, the stakeholders raised the issue that the terms and conditions of the agreement offered by the MSO is one sided and do not provide a level playing field to the LCOs. Often the obligation of both the parties for meeting the quality of service norms prescribed in the QoS regulation is not clearly defined in the interconnection agreement and due to which, in the event of dispute between the MSO and the LCO, the quality of service is adversely affected.

With an objective to reduce the disputes between MSOs and LCOs, TRAI has devised Model & Standard Interconnection Agreements which contains mandatory provisions to ensure the compliance of the regulatory framework available for DAS. The proposed draft consists of a Model Interconnection Agreement (MIA) and Standard Interconnection agreements (SIA) in a single document namely draft model & standard interconnection agreements. The draft contains necessary terms and conditions, to ensure the compliance of the regulatory framework available for DAS and, to provide a level playing field to the MSOs and the LCOs. The draft agreement also lists roles and responsibilities as well as rights and obligations of each party separately.

The draft Model & Standard Interconnection agreements have been uploaded on the TRAI website www.trai.zov.in. Stakeholders have been requested to offer their comments and counter comments latest by 31.12.2015 and 07.01.2016 respectively. The comments/ counter comments may be sent preferably in electronic form on email to sksinghal@trai.gov.in or das@trai.go

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment