Bangalore : The South based MSO Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) has withdrawn its application for pan-India digital addressable system licence and focuses on South India currently. ACT has planned to resort to inorganic growth in North India, in future.
“We run cable TV operations in the three southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. We have standalone state licences operating by wholly-owned subsidiaries of ACT. The parent company had applied for a pan-India DAS but we have withdrawn our plans to go national,” said Bala Malladi, CEO of ACT.
“If we decide to expand in North India, it will be only through acquisition. Otherwise, we will confine our cable TV presence to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. In broadband, we are going to widen our geographical footprint,” added Malladi.
In Bengaluru, ACT has deployed 125,000 STBs and is planning to seed another 50,000 STBs. The estimated subscriber base in Andhra Pradesh (AP) is 300,000 and ACT is targeting 0.5 million digital cable TV subscribers in AP. ACT has launched broadband service in Chennai. ACT planned to invest over INR 2 billion (USD 33.8 million) for expanding its cable TV and broadband business in June 2014.
