In Cable TV Services in an era of better & more established providers having DTH like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Sun TV really makes you wonder whether the CAS rollout over 7 years ago was actually meant to improve only viewership or improve the overall quality because services are very poor indeed. Other service providers also exist like Hathway Cable & Television, Win TV, Citi Cable however unlike Telephone, Internet & Radio, this industry has not been regulated but is being run like a mafia or rogue operators association. The problem is that whether the consumer has any choice at all or it depends on the whims & fancies of the TSP's like these operators

Due to the ambiguity & limitation of these operators & their responsibilities not being outlined, where I live in Bandra West, there are several deficiencies which are very prominent;

• Weekends (Saturdays/Sundays) are the most frequent days for Shutdowns which incidentally are the days when viewers use the Tube that much more. Almost all of these days of the week some problems crop up

• Equipment/Devices/Accessories of this operator aren't the greatest either frequently prone to malfunctions & replacement. STB's are rarely updated with the latest hardware & no knowledge comes of it

• Personnel/Technicians are almost always impossible to reach or contact whenever there is an issue meaning there aren't any dedicated resources available to manage faults which makes you wonder how these services are micromanaged anyway!!

• Services prone to frequent breakdowns, unaccounted for delays in restoration or resupply with no provision for compensation for loss of services or lack of delivery

• No prior intimations of maintenance work, repairs or outages which are likely to impact customer viewership

Unfortunately, if these important services are run more like a cottage or small scale industry, things will never improve. The ideal thing is to have a professional management team in place & overhaul the entire set of operators. Many of these services are run by Corporators, Politicians, those in high positions & bastions of power. This will have to be delineated or dissolved if citizens need to have proper access to services

As I write this note, only a couple of channels on my Television Set are actually working out of maybe 200-300 which is really poor & beyond the realm of understanding. This issue has persisted beyond a week now