Can’t move TV cables before final whistle,say operators

While the civic agency has now threatened to “snap the cables” of the operators who do not comply with its order by the end of June — the revised deadline — operators claim this will lead to interruption in the telecast of the FIFA matches and hence must be extended further.

There are around 2,000 cable operators in Delhi catering to about 8 million consumers.

“We have issued notices to all cable operators and most of them have expressed willingness to remove the overhead cables,but the work will take time. It would also involve snapping of some lines disrupting the FIFA telecast,” says Roop Sharma,president of Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI).

The problem,however,is more complex,Sharma adds.

According to COFI,in March,the cable operators had agreed to cooperate with the MCD after “big players” like Reliance,MTNL and Airtel agreed to share their dark fibre or spare capacity of fibre optics with the operators. The move was to allow the operators to share the extra capacity on the already laid cables of the telecoms,without laying fresh cables.

Three months on,not a single operator has shifted the cables.

While the MCD claims the operators have delayed the move as they do not want to pay the telecom service providers for the dark fibre,the cable operators say telecom companies are not fixing the rates due to “vested interests”.

“We have had so many meetings with MTNL but it has not given us the rates at which we must pay them. What can the cable operators do now?” Sharma says.

“Besides,Reliance and Airtel are creating unnecessary difficulties. They say they have no extra space in the important parts of the city and are offering us dark fibre space in areas like Gurgaon and Faridabad where we do not need it. This is because both Reliance and Airtel wish to create market for their own Direct-to-Home services once the cable wires are snapped,” she adds.

Representatives of both Reliance and Airtel remained unavailable for comment.

“Once the problem with big players is cleared,the shift will not take much time,” Sharma says.

The MCD,meanwhile,says it will not extend the deadline further.