MUMBAI: Grant Investrade Limited (GIL), a subsidiary of Hinduja Ventures, has crossed the final hurdle to start operations of NXT Digital - its headend in the sky (HITS) service. The company has received Wireless Operating License (WOL) from the Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing of the Ministry of Information & Communications Technology.

The WOL is the final regulatory step before making HITS operational, in accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated in the Letter of Intent (LOI) issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to GIL last year.

“We are delighted to confirm receipt of the WOL for us to commence operationalisation of the HITS service in India. The launch of NXT Digital is in line with the Government’s objective of making India ‘digital’ and we’re proud to be a part of this national initiative,” said GIL chairman AK Das.

“NXT Digital has received an overwhelming response from the distribution fraternity in Phase III & IV markets in India. Our broadcast centre and our backend systems are fully operational; our broadcaster relationships have been formalised, we’ve already rolled out our COPE mini-headend systems and STBs and we’re ready to go ‘live’ shortly,” added GIL managing director Tony D’Silva.

It may be recalled that the government recently ruled out the extension of the DAS phase III deadline of 31 December, 2015. In view of this, NXT Digital is being viewed as the enabler for the cable fraternity go digital as per government mandated standards and within the deadline.