Siti Cable, which received on Wednesday the letter of intent for direct-to-home service, plans to offer it in areas not being serviced by cable operators, but foresees no overlap of cable operations with it.
Siti, a part of the Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group, is pressing for early implementation of CAS, but its chief Jawahar Goel said that the set-top boxes needed post-CAS (conditional access system) cannot be upgraded to the DTH platform and hence the two services cannot overlap.
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"We belong to the lobby which is in favour of CAS... We have today received the LoI for beginning DTH services. But we do not want to take away the right of cable operators. DTH will be offered to those consumers who are unable to get cable television," Goel told reporters.
He said the number of channels, which can be carried on the DTH platform is limited unlike in the normal cable operations.
Siti on Wedneday also showcased several features in the digital set-top boxes it is offering to the consumers for the post-CAS scenario. Using these STBs, consumers can send SMS, listen to radio, do electronic billing and play games.
Goel said 140,000 of these digital STBs have been manufactured in Korea, of which 80,000 have already been dispatched to India.
Allaying apprehensions of a shortage of STBs, he said in the phased CAS rollout planned by the government, only about 140,000 of these boxes are needed initially.