Telecom in India - CAS to be Phased Out. Most Roof-top Transmission Towers to Disappear from Cityscapes. Domestic VOIP to become Legal.
Kolkata TRAI Chariman, Dr. J S Sarma, IAS addressed an interactive session at the Bharat Chamber of Commerce on 8th June 2010. Among others, he said that Indian mobile telephony customer base which is currently 600 million will go up to 1 billion in 2014. His main presentation is reported in today's media and is not reiterated here. At the end of his presentation, during an interactive session, along with others, I too had the opportunity of raising a few issues. My questions and Dr. Sarma's responses are given below because these are all matters of great public interest. Q-1: What is the future of the conditional access system (CAS)? Trai Chairman's response: The conditional access system will be phased out in about 5 years by which time CAS will be replaced by a new digital transmission technology. Q-2: Aside from hurting the cityscape, are roof-top transmission towers also health hazards for the neighborhood? Trai Chairman's response: In the normal course of their fu