After the Bombay high court refused to extend digitisation deadline, many Mumbaikars woke up to blank television screens on Thursday.
According to cable operators, over 6 lakh screens have gone blank in the city.
Shubhashish Biswas, a resident of Santacruz (East) did not bother to buy a set top box, hoping the deadline would be extended. “When I called my operators, he said he has busy for at least another three days as he is flooded with calls from consumers to install a set top box,” he said.
Consumers and cable operators are now in a hurry to fix the issue, although many feel that the deadline could have been extended till the year-end.
To understand and analyse the issue, over 1,000 cable operators on Thursday held a meeting headed by Anil Parab, president of Cable Operators’ Association.
The association has decided to go on a protest march outside the collector’s office on Friday. It also plans to move the Supreme Court over extending the deadline.
“There is still 30% of digitisation remaining in the city. We do not have enough workers and boxes to cater to such a huge population in such a short time,” said Parab. “It is a shame that the government could not extend the deadline for another two months. We expect both consumers and operators to to join the protest.”
Ravi Singh, vice-president of the association, added that the move will also impact their businesses.
“Our competitors DTH may start reaping benefits out of this. They will start approaching customers and provide connections. We don’t want that to happen. Nobody is against digitisation, but we need more time to make it completely functional,” he said.
