TRAI moots cable TV telephony

By agencies   |   Thursday, 05 January 2006, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed to open up the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), which is supposed to enable cable operators to offer telephony services to their customers more efficiently. Most cable operators in the country are offering data services such as broadband Internet services apart from broadcast TV. If the TRAI proposal comes through, they would be able to foray into voice services as well in direct competition to telecom operators. Currently there is a restriction in usage of protocols; the only protocols permitted are SIP and H.323, which are primarily suited for a proper telecom network. TRAI is of the opinion that for cable TV operators, other protocols like MGCP could be more useful for foraying into telephony services. Customers would of course need a calling device (customer premise equipment) at their residence to avail telephony services through cable but the call charges are expected to be a fraction of what they are paying now. Globally, cable operators are offering telephony services. A group of cable TV operators in the U.S. like Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications, and Advance/Newhouse Communications - recently announced that they are forming a joint venture with Sprint Nextel to offer customers wireless telephone service. "Telecom operators are poaching into sectors like broadcasting, media, and music by offering live TV and music downloads on mobile handsets. Technology now permits reverse poaching where cable guys can become telecom operators," said a market analyst. Cox Communications, for instance, has 1.3 million telephone users on its cable network and the Japan-based J-Com has over eight lakh cable phone subscribers. Cable operators in India, however, say that they may not have enough capacity to offer telephone services yet. "It would be very difficult for cable operators to offer telephony. There is a capacity constraint and operators do not have enough bandwidth to offer television channels. There would be no spare bandwidth to offer telephony services and this could create problems for offering quality broadcasting services," said a cable TV operator.