The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has called a stakeholders’ meeting on June 27 to discuss various issues relating to MSOs and cable operators, including the important matter of the National Register of LCOs.

Other issues that have been listed for discussion include ways to increase penetration of broadband in rural areas and how LCOs can play an important role.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, at the end of April 2024, India boasted of 928.41million subscribers, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.47 percent — a trajectory that seems to be flattened in recent times.

Several experts, including regulator TRAI, have opined at various times in recent times that efforts to up the broadband penetration in rural areas should include delivery of the service by cable operators and MSOs, apart from other advanced tech like broadband-via-satellite.

According to industry sources, the meeting to be held at MIB later this week will also take up logistics of transfer of LCO registrations from post offices to the designated government website, the Broadcast Seva portal, which is used for a number of matters by stakeholders to share information with MIB.

On a suggestion from TRAI, the MIB earlier this year had decided to create a National Register of cable operators and had asked for relevant data over the past few months from the service providers so the new process could be started.

The MIB on February 8 had issued a directive to LCOs to furnish by requisite details — like subscriber base, area of operations, etc. — through the Broadcast Seva Portal. This initiative, the government said, was aimed at assigning a National Registration Number to each LCO and compiling a National Register.