Mumbai : Grant Investrade Ltd (GIL), a subsidiary of Hinduja Ventures has obtained Wireless Operating License (WOL) to for their Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) services from the Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing of the Ministry of Information & Communications Technology.
The WOL is the final regulatory step before making HITS operational, in accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated in the Letter of Intent issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to GIL last year.
AK Das, Chairman, Grant Investrade, said, “We are delighted to confirm receipt of the WOL for us to commence operationalisation of the HITS service in India. The launch of NXT Digital is in line with the Government’s objective of making India digital and we’re proud to be a part of this national initiative.”
Tony D’Silva, Managing Director, GIL, added here, “NXT Digital has received an overwhelming response from the distribution fraternity in Phase III and IV markets in India. Our broadcast centre and our backend systems are fully operational; our broadcaster relationships have been formalised, we’ve already rolled out our COPE mini‐headend systems and set-top boxes (STBs) and we’re ready to go live shortly.”
It may be recalled that the Government recently ruled out the extension of the DAS Phase III deadline of 31st December 2015, therefore, NXT Digital is being viewed as the enabler for the cable fraternity go digital as per Government-mandated standards and within the deadline.
By signing up for the NXT Digital service, a cable operator can save the burden of having to make huge investments in the technology and highly skilled manpower required to convert analog households to digital as per the DAS norms.
