Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday extended the deadline for implementation of new tariff order (NTO) 2.0 to 1 June. The previous deadline was 1 April.

As per the plan, Trai has allowed broadcasters to revise their reference interconnect offers (RIO) by 28 February and publish the same on their websites. It has also asked distributed platform operators (DPOs) to report the distributor retail price and composition of the bouquet of pay channels by 31 March in compliance with the new regulatory framework. Those who have already submitted can revise their RIOs by 31 March.

“Keeping in view the current pandemic situation across the country and requests received from stakeholders for extension of time for implementation of new regulatory framework 2020, it has been decided to extend the time limit for implementation of new regulatory framework 2020,” said Trai in the statement.  

Several stakeholders have informed Trai that due to the present Covid situation most of their staff who were affected were unable to attend office due to guidelines by state governments. Cable operators’ staff were finding it difficult to reach Covid affected subscribers/areas for collection of choices.

Further, Trai has asked all distributors of TV channels to ensure that with effect from 1 June services to the subscribers are provided as per the bouquets or channels opted by the subscribers.