India’s CAS delays criticised
September 17, 2014
By Chris Forrester
Back on August 14 we reported that India’s government had permitted another delay of its mandated Digital Access System (CAS) from this coming December to December 2015. The rules apply to the county’s Phase III and Phase IV cities.
Now India’s Telecom regulator (TRAI) has criticised the government saying that the decision sends the wrong message to international investors. TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar said: “We pushed and got Phases I and II completed at the end of last year. This decision will send the wrong signal, saying ‘we are not ready for business’ again by postponing the dates. It is [a bad decision] for ‘Digital India’.”
Khullar also said that India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s wish to see indigenous set-top supplies capitalising on the demand was “a pipe dream, it will never happen”.