Phase III residents still to buy STBs with digitisation deadline on December 31

Phase III residents still to buy STBs with digitisation deadline fast approaching

With the analogue connections coming off on December 31 for Phase III consumers, many Indians has yet to buy their Set-Top-Box (STB) to make the switch over for the digital connection.

It is believed nearly 50% of people in urban localities do not appear to have purchased the STBs so far. December 31, which has been fixed as deadline for digitisation of cable television, is fast approaching.

Service providers across India are finding it difficult to convince customers to make the switch over from analogue to digital and in the process buy STBs. The analogue cable connections are expected to be terminated at midnight on December 31.

The prime example of Hassan, Kannada, has been evoked in the Hindu where out of the 102000 people estimated to buy STBS in phase III, approximately 40,000 have purchased them.

“As December 31 is the deadline, customers should approach the service providers and get set-top boxes installed, well in advance. Otherwise, it will be difficult to provide the equipment to all of them, if they come at the last minute,” said K.P.S. Pramod, manager of Amogh Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd.

“Consumers of urban areas who are still receiving cable TV services without STB are advised to avail and install STBs before cut-off date in order to receive uninterrupted TV services,” TRAI added in a recent statement.

“Digitisation helps subscribers in many ways. They get high quality services, besides the option of choosing packages. All these days, they were getting a cluster of channels and paying a fixed rate. From now on, they should choose a package that suits their requirement and pay accordingly,” said H.N. Jnanesh Babu, manager of DEN Networks.

Set-top boxes are available with all cable network providers and the prices vary in the range of Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 1,600.