|
Monday December 29, 10:21 AM
|
Source: Indian Express Finance
|
MSOs plan to take up STB rental slash issue with Trai
By Soma Das
Claiming that the effective cost of set-top boxes hasn t moved downward since the last two years, cable operators expressed their disappointment over the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India s (Trai) recent move to slash the security deposit and monthly rental of set-top boxes (STBs). They are planning to take up the issue with the broadcast regulator. According to the operators, the slash in the factory prices of set top box have been more than offset by the rupee depreciation since last two years rendering the effective import price of set-top boxes unchanged or marginally altered depending on the models that the different cable operators have opted for. On Friday, Trai had revised the STB related security deposit to Rs 200 from Rs 250 with a monthly rental of Rs 34 instead of Rs 45. In another scheme, Trai revised the security deposit to Rs 750 from Rs 999 with a monthly rental of Rs 22 instead of Rs 30 alongside allowing cable operators to hike rates by 7%. According to an estimate of a MSO, while the free on board (FOB) price of STB has reduced by 10 to 15% since early 2007, when CAS was rolled out in the four metros partially, the dollar has appreciated by 20 to 25% since then, so there is no relief to STB importers in terms of hardware costs. According to another estimate by an independent observer, while the STBs were priced in the range of $36 to $47 two years back, currently the STBs cost between $34 to $44. FOB is a price which includes goods plus the services of loading those goods onto some vehicle or vessel at a named location and doesn t include duties and currency fluctuation costs in it. Claiming that there are no statistics to prove that the landed cost of STBs have actually gone down, another MSO pleaded that Trai should have taken into account the currency fluctuations and furnished empirical evidence of the landed cost having gone down before arriving at the calculation and announcing the change.
