NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that released a recommendation paper on the new DTH licensing regime amongst other things also covered the issue of set top box (STB) interoperability. In the paper, the Authority has said that STB interoperability is not possible because of the different technologies adopted by the operators due to them entering the market at different times.

TRAI thus, has asked the bureau of Indian standards (BIS) to regularly keep updating the standard of STB technology.

Just one day after the recommendation paper, the Authority has now been asked by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) to give its recommendations on how the portability of direct-to-home (DTH) set top boxes can be done easily.

Stating this, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar today told Parliament that the interoperability of DTH customer premises equipment has not so far proved to be effective due to various techno-economic reasons.

The interoperability had been envisaged in the DTH licence conditions, he said.

The portability in DTH service can be achieved through technical interoperability or through commercial interoperability.