Friday, July 21, 2006

CBNSat Customers it is time to take Action

Here we are approaching another weekend. The confusion and madness that has gripped the media industry which began with the shutting down of cable tv stations is now continuing with the new taxes on local tv stations and the advertising industry.

In a few weeks time it will two months since this fiasco started and no one has given relief to the people who purchased the connections. The state of affairs in sri lanka is going down very badly and very soon we may be comparable to countries like North Korea. The temporary license is all but forgotten. We wish to thank "Dude" for putting up a really inspiring comment on this blog. Yes justice will prevail but let it not be dragged. We would like to urge His Excellency The President Mahinda Rajapakse to allow CBNSat to resume operations with immediate effect since the people have spent their hard earned money on this service.

This technology put Sri Lanka on par with developed nations in terms of satellite technology. We should be proud of a company going into technology like this and enabling all classes of people to have equal access to quality educational and entertainment programmes.

You the citizens of this country have to exercise your fundamental rights and will have to organise some kind of action plan. Just posting on this blog is not going to solve your problems. You have to continue writing letters to the authorities and now you have to take a step beyond this too. This blog is open for all to come up with a plan and organise some kind of campaign (no violence please, and not anything that will compromise the security plans step up by the Government) and get the authorities to give ear to the people.

There are several of you who post on this blog and we see that some do not post now because it is all post and no action. We asked you all whether to organise a meeting and nothing materialised because of low response. So we will not organise anything this time and we hand it over to you CBNSat customers to discuss using this blog, use sms, email and all forms of communication to get in touch with each other and come up with a plan. Then the authorities will definitely listen to all of you.

Please keep posting on this blog on any new developments as the weekend progresses. Good Luck to all of you.

16 comments:

Sanjeev Thurusinghe said...

LBN –Case

There want be a temporary licenses issued to the company. According to the media ministry they are working on the permanent licenses. Since TRC licensees closing date today. They will revert back on 26th of this month.

Sam said...

Story for you boys.
There was a country in galaxy far, far a way with chief-of-justice name Sarath. One day a citizen sues this CJ because he doesn’t trust him or something. Guess who was the judge in that case? CJ himself listen to the accuser against him. And guess what happened to the accuser? CJ (the defended) put him (accuser) jail. Actually that guy still in a jail far, far a way.
Well my point is – there is no point.
I’m sorry for been so negative. But I live in Sri Lanka and I have experience.

Sam said...

Hey Herath.. This is out of topic. but who is deputy for TV lanka guy? is that a guy name Darshana AKA Kamal AKA David?

We all know how TV lanka make money with TRC;) By the way do you know he is paying for one of TRC guy's (Ramanayaka) apartment at SET Building even deposit money in to his son's (around 10 years old) account (that kid must be the most richest kid in SL)?

Sanjeev Thurusinghe said...

Breaking News.

TRC have extended the closing date for the applications up to August 15th. The next Magistrate court hearing on the Aug 15th. Now one thing is sure, entire episode is well planned. They will another 2 months to evaluate the applications on Aug 15th.

justavisitor said...

Yes they have extended the deadline.

extension notice

Now they can drag this further.

Lisura said...

I personally know few businessmen close to the government are trying to get into this business. But under the current situation they can't come out as they will be idenfied as the under cutters who fabricated the whole issue.

They are running behind other people to work as proxies for them. This is for their cover up. The licences will be issued to those persons name. So it will take time for them to apply for this licence. Most of these operators are planning to uplink from india or Hong Kong.

This is a very unfair business practice. Shutting down a successful service provider to create space to governments favourites.

After these new players enter the market only the'll allow CBNSat also to commence operations.

And TRC has been dead silent right from the start of this whole scenario. But we have inside information that TRC officials are running behind their "Friends" to obtain this licence.

So I would say a lot of DTH satellite TV operators will enter the Sri Lankan market.

Dear friends now that we know the whole scene please don't fall prey in tho the hands of these operators. Carefully examine who is behind the operations. Definitely you'll find people who is behind this fiasco !

bank_dude said...

Can we organize a protest in front of TRC to highlight our concerns about CBNSat matter. I think now it's right time to proceed such a action. Further no violence.

Lisura said...

How many letters have we posted to the relevant authorities. They have turned blind folded. This government do not care about the 25,000 CBNSat subscribers.

There are bigger issues in the country with 100,000's of people involved. IF the government is not taking any action on them can you expect them to do anything for this issue.

And we all know by now what is and who is behind the sudden closure of CBNSat. They have done it with an objective.

That is to prevent people from getting a satellite connection till their players enter the business. They wanted to create that room. So till then they will keep CBNSat shut.

On the otherhand this incident have already distotred the finer image of CBNSat as a company. They have spend a lot to make their brand a clean one. That is no more there now. With other companies entering the market it will be hard for CBN to compete with this tarnished image of them. People will have fears at the back of their minds that this could be closed anytime. SO the new subscribers will go for new service providers.

Lisura said...

I personally do not think that the government will listen to our grievances. How many letters have we posted to the relevant authorities. Has anything happened ??? NOOOOO!!!!!

They have closed CBN with a prime abjective. That's to let their friends enter this business. This is not like changing a mobile network. Once you invest with the system of one operator you can't use it with another like in mobiles by changing the chip.

CBN reciver cant be used with DishTV and vice versa. So a subscriber will hardly switch opearators unless there is a big technical advantage like between comet and CBN.

CBN have brought in the latest technology (DVB-S) and caught up the market at an aggressive rate. 25,000 connections in just one year. If they operated for these 3 months on average they'll sell another 4000 connections but with the world cup the amount would have been double !

So the "Interested parties" as mentioned by the TRC (Now the cat had jumped out of the TRC bag !!!! ) wanted to stop this till they start their business.

Even on August 15th nothing will happen. It will take another 2 months to draft the amendment to the Rupavahini act. And the charges against the operators will also be filed on that date.

So that will be just another court date. Most probably it will get postponed again.

Sam said...

I’m not been negative here – I’m just trying to move the light around.

I’m not sure we (citizens) have enough resources in this. This is not a problem about LBNSat or any other cable TV station. This is much larger problem.

Telecommunication much more profitable than ‘Drugs’ – I’m quoting one the TRC guys here.

When ever government regulate something it create monopoly (earlier SLT, Shell Gas, etc..) Once the regulations turn in to restriction it create black-market (ex: Prostitution)
Black-Market always managed by underworld or so call mafia (again Prostitution and Telecommunication are best examples)

This problem starts not when Cabal stations shut down. It started long time before government start to sell off the radio frequency spectrum for data transmission. Water, Air, Beach, Ocean, Radio Frequency Spectrum, Satellite orbit, Sunlight own by citizens and none suppose to sell.

Lanka Internet, Electrotec (TV Lanka), MTN is brought the radio frequency spectrum very first time. None make any hum about that then – we had no need – we had bread for 3.50.

When TRC restrict VOIP call termination they created black-market giants. Thilanga Sumathipala, Chandrika Bandaranayaka, TV Lanka guy are few of them.

In good old days they made around 20Rs per an every call minute – after it reduce to 8Rs and now the profit is around 1.50Rs to 50c per a minute.
Let’s do the match – Let’s say TV lanka guy had 10 E1 lines (that is very low figure).
E1 line is 30 phone lines. Let’s calculate profit as 10 Rs per a minute.

30x10 (One E1 line per a minute) x 10 (10 E1 line per a minute) x 60 (per a hour) x24 (per day) x 30 (per a month) = 129600000 RS

Now those guys are extremely powerful enough to even buy the president. (Did he?)

TRC function so much active than Bribery Communion. The simple reason is TRC guys receive 1.50Rs to 25c on every call for provide protection to the black market. Remember we are talking about huge some of money.

Whole world run on telecommunication infrastructure this days. But in Sri Lanka it is a business run by very few people.

Now what benefit all mighty TV lanka guy get out of from cable TV? VOIP do not make any profit no more. He needs to get in to some other business and he wants his good old monopoly provided by government using our tax money. He is working toward that.

The long term solution for this – we need much more transparent and liberal telecommunication regulatory commission. Regulation should happened only when market not able to regulate it self. Remember Sri Lanka is the only country license WinMAX too. All this issues are out put of one giant problem we have.

Do you think we (citizens) can make louder sound than black money – especially when majority of Sri Lankan are not interested in this?

But as a viewer all I have to do is hang around year or so until TVLanka start their own cable TV station. But as a good citizen I like to see TRC go to hell.

Airtel lanka said...

not worth shouting here, and showing your grief, i say go and protest or organize a meeting corresponding to a group so the RIGHTS of 25,000 customers will be prevailed, and TRC cannot do nothing about it....

good luck, make a group and tell me, and pls do not show ur grief here, cuz it aint helping

Lisura said...

I'm not being negative my fellow bloggers ! We have to face the reality. Can you expect any mercy form this type of rulers.

Even after the court orders the Comet and SATNet is still in operation and no one is bothered to look into them. There were rumours saying that other small scale cable operators are selaed but they are also still operating.

Now we all know that the amendment of the Rupavahini corporation act is still not being done and the new licence deadline have been postponed to 15th August.

So it's very clear that no one in the business have these licences now.

SO WHAT'S BEHIND ALL THE OTHERS OPERATING AND CBNSAT AND LBN IS SHUT. PLEASE DON'T SHUT DOWN OTHERS BUT PLEASE LET EVERYONE OPERATE AT LEAST BY NOT GIVING NEW CONNECTIONS TILL THE WHOLE INDUSTRY IS BEING REGULARISED !!!

Lisura said...

GOOD IDEA DUDE. WE SHOULD FORM A GROUP LIKE "CBNSAT SUBSCRIBER FORUM" AND HOLD A PRESS BRIEFING. I THINK THEN WE CAN GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS. AND MAYBE WE CAN GET AN APPOINTMENT FROM THE PRESIDENT AND MEET HIM AND TELL HIM OUR GRIEVENCES.

I SUSPECT THAT THE LETTERS WE HAVE SENT HAVN'T REACHED THE PRESIDENT. MAYBE THE OFFICIALS BELOW WOULD HAVE HID THEM. THAT'S THE NATURE.

SO WHERE CAN WE MEET. CAN'T WE GET THE SUPPORT OF CBNSAT TO ORGANISE THIS ???? I THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER. THEY NEED NOT TO COME TO THE SCENE. WE'LL BE AT THE SCENE. BUT THEY HAVE TO BE AT THE BACK.

10 STRONG PEOPLE IS ENOUGH TO LEAD THE FORUM. AT LEAST 50 OR 100 SUBSCRIBERS SHOULD BE AT THE BACK.

POST YOUR COMMENTS !!!!!

Lisura said...

OK ! MEETING AT VIHARAMAHADEVI PARK NEAR THE BUDDHA STATUE IS OK. THE DATE WILL BE 27TH THURSDAY AT 5.30 P.M.

WE WILL INFORM OUR PERSONAL CONTACTS TOO. (WHO ARE CBNSAT CUSTOMERS)

AND THERE SHOULD BE A WAY TO IDENTIFY THE SUBSCRIBERS. SO I SUGGEST EVERYONE TO BRING A CBNSAT BILL TOGETHER WITH THEIR NATIONAL ID CARD.

STRICTLY NO STRANGERS SHOULD BE ENTERTAINED. WE SHOULD CONCERN ABOUT OUR OWN SECURITY.

Lisura said...

Yes ! I think at least few of us should meet in the first place immediately before everyones' meeting. Then something will go forward. I think the moderator will also have some contacts. I also have some which I got before.

IF YOU ARE OK PLEASE SEND ME YOUR CONTACT DETAILS TO cbnsat@gmail.com

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR CBNSAT ACCOUNT NUMBER. OTHERWISE NO WAY OF TRACKING WHETHER YOU ARE A GENUINE PERSON.

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

Please confirm the Meeting Location and time by email for us to post it officially on the blog. Is it going to involve only CBNSat or also LBN customers. Whoever is collecting the email address, please get in touch with us. We also have some email address that we can get across to you. The chain mail idea is also good to get the message across. The word should spread starting today.

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