A section of cable operators affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation want the government-run setup to enter into formal agreements with them as mandated by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). They have also urged the Arasu Cable officials to facilitate a meeting with the Chief Minister to highlight the challenges they face.
At a press meet on Tuesday, cable operators affiliated to the Federation of Cable TV Associations of Tamilnadu charged that Arasu Cable TV had arbitrarily sent notices to over 15,000 operators asking them to pay huge backlogs of money due to the MSO (multi-system operator) on grounds of under-declaration.
The Association’s coordinator, D.G.V.P. Sekar, said Arasu Cable had suddenly starting acting like the subscribers belonged directly to the MSO and completely overlooked the cable operators who had built up the service from scratch.
“We mobilised the cable operators thinking the government floated the MSO to fight the monopoly of private players. But, now it appears as though we bargained for one monopoly over the other,” he said.
While Arasu Cable TV’s letters to the operators have been challenged in court, the latter appealed to the government to withdraw the letters and give up the stifling approach. They said they must be considered as partners by Arasu Cable because they had owned the last-mile infrastructure including control rooms and the cables.
