Consumer forums say cable TV operators flouting TRAI rules

Coimbatore: Cable TV operators and distribution platform owners in the city have been demanding unwarranted fee from customers for migrating services to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s new regulatory framework, said consumer forums in the city.
They said TRAI had brought the new regulatory framework into effect from February 1 this year and asked operators not to cause inconvenience to consumers while migrating the services. However, the operators have been complicating the procedures, claim consumer activists.

Representatives of Citizens’ Voice Coimbatore have written to the advisers of TRAI in New Delhi seeking to set up a district-level ombudsman to monitor cable TV operators and distribution platform owners.

TRAI had given a ‘simple way of selecting TV channels’ where it had asked consumers to select the list of channels in their TVs. In a communication dated February 1, 2019, it had said consumers can add or delete any channels from their selected list at the end of a month or after the subscription period.

Also in a communication dated February 12, 2019, TRAI had told operators that the ‘best fit plan’ would be based on consumer’s discretion and distribution platform owners should provide user-friendly methods for subscribers to exercise their choice.

However, operators in the district have been complicating the process by making consumers come to their office to select channels and also charging a fee for this process, said C M Jayaraman, president of Citizens’ Voice Coimbatore. “Even when customers ask for only free channels, some operators ask them to visit their offices and charge a fee of Rs 500 for the migration process,” he said.

Jayaraman said the simple procedures laid by TRAI have not reached consumers and in this confusion service operators have been making hay. He said there must be a local ombudsman to look into consumer grievances while migrating to the TRAI’s new regulatory framework.

The forum also sought the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to introduce toll-free numbers for consumers to lodge complaints.