Written Interconnection Agreement Must for Providing Signals of TV Channels

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a cautionary to all multi-system operators to provide signals of TV channels to LCOs only with a written interconnection agreement.

TRAI has also notified formats of the Model Interconnection Agreement (MIA) and Standard Interconnection Agreement (SIA) to be signed between MSOs and LCOs, so that there is a level playing field and less disputes between MSOs and LCOs. While the MIA enables MSOs and LCOs to have a mutual agreement in a structured manner in line with the regulatory framework, the SIA provides standard terms and conditions prescribed by the regulation that can be adopted by MSOs and LCOs for retransmission of TV signal, if they fail to mutually agree on MIA.