From CBNsat Subscribers Unite.....

Dear Fellow CBNSat Subscribers,

First of all sorry for not informing you of the actions we have taken during the past few weeks. This was actually to avoid our enemies getting the info they want regarding our actions through this open blog. They are the people who created this fiasco and they are also closely monitoring this blog and we didn’t want to get our action plan into their hands.

In the recent days there seems to a trend in the blog of accusing the Blog admin and the CBNSat Subscriber Unite of not doing anything for the subscribers. First of all we should thank the blog admin as he is the one who paved the path for us to get together and exchange our ideas otherwise we still do not have any media of communicating. Secondly from the positive responses we got this forum lead to form the “CBNSat Subscriber Unite” Which is a huge achievement. This Blog has become the sole place for information regarding the CBNSat issue as the other media is not giving coverage to this. And we do like to mention the people who just criticize the blog admin and the Subscribers Unite it is very much easy to just type out something in the blog but you have to come out of the blog to see the reality. During the last few weeks we have spent a lot of our time, money and energy over this issue. We even risk our lives as all the people behind this fiasco now know about us. In so many occasions they have stopped us from voicing out and meet the government officials including the president.

After forming CBNSat SU we have been actively involved in getting our infotainment service provider back to our lives. We have written to all the government authorities, called and even met to voice out our concerns as discriminated subscribers. Certain mass media institutions also gave coverage to our activities such as the Sunday Times, Nation and Rivira news papers. We also made our representations in the Supreme Court in the last 2 hearings.

We have thoroughly studied this whole scenario of shutting down of CBNSat and we can come to a conclusion of there is no reason proven with facts whatsoever to justify this act. The accusations made to CBNSat regarding links with the LTTE Terrorists, Technology issue, FTV issue and finally the National Security concern are now proven as baseless allegations made deliberately to delay the justice done to CBNSat and its Subscribers. And during the past months we saw these allegations came in a cycling process one after another and this cycle is being repeated over and over. Not a single of these allegations were proved in the courts of law.

Since they know that they have a risk of running out of these false allegations they came up with this “Security Clearance” from Ministry of Defense excuse. The people who created this fiasco is currently in the high ranking positions in the Ministry of Defence and they clearly know that this could be dragged on forever till CBNSat runs bankrupt and close down their operations.

If our CID is intelligent they should realize on the very first day of shutting down of CBNSat that the LTTE TV channel is not broadcasted through CBNSat platform. If it had happened so it should have stopped with the closure of CBNSat. But up to date it is operating without any disturbance. The CID has checked this later and even now they are confident that the LTTE TV Channel is not broadcasted through CBNSat platform. What did the government do to shut down the LTTE channel rather than closing CBNSat ? NOTHING ! Have they at least spoke to the PanAmSat ( owned by Intel SAT) or US government to not give satellite communication facilities to LTTE ?
NO !!!!!! And it was noted in this blog that the telephone used by LTTE TV is a Sri Lanka Telecom phone bearing number 021-2285879. So it is clear that the government do not have intentions to shut down the LTTE channel but to make it an excuse to run down a successful business to create space for their favorites.

With regards to FTV (Fashion TV) issue it’s funny that the government trying to stop a satellite channel which is free-to-air (FTA). Anyone with a normal satellite receiving system could receive FTV free of charge without linking up with CBNSat. And the government has no control to stop it as it is broadcasted from Hong Kong and India.

And we wonder what this national security issue is???? CBNSat is a public network and what the subscribers do is only receive the signal. There is nothing could be transmitted with the supplied equipment. The Dish, LNB and the receiver all are for receiving purposes only. On the other end the government has issued 3G licenses to the mobile operators and WiMAX licenses will also be issued in very near future. With these anyone could transmit high quality video to any location with a small hand held 3G devices such as a mobile phone. We are not telling the government not to issue licenses to these emerging technologies but to let them operate and monitor.

The majority of CBNSat subscribers are Singhalese. Are we all traitors to just watch the LTTE TV channel being broadcasted on CBNSat and to keep our mouths shut without complaining to authorities? And we wonder how much “National Security” we have by having people who are severely corrupt at the top to the Defense Ministry specially at the MCNS !

So it is evident to us that the government has clear intentions of closing down CBNSat permanently. This was openly stated to us when contacted government officials during the past few weeks. What they have stated is that to forget the money we paid to CBNSat. And even though the president has said he is a leader who is willing to listen to peoples problems, up to date he hasn’t even bothered to meet us or the CBNSat Management to discuss the issue.

We have consulted lawyers in this regard to proceed with legal action on behalf of the subscribers to get some relief. But what they said is that even the CBNSat lawyers have gone far in this case and since all this is controlled by an unseen force (now we all know who) it will not make any sense. All of us have already loosed our hard earned money on the equipment and entering into a never ending legal battle makes no sense.

This is the state as it is of today from the point of view of subscribers. We regret that we could not post any more details of our actions on an open blog like this but we would like to note that we have not given up. We will be closely monitoring the current situation and necessary action will be taken at the correct time. The people who have put us into this tragedy will have to face the consequences of the nature as we believe in our religions. If anyone think “OK, We have played them fool and won” they are utterly mistaken.

CBNSat Subscribers Unite

CBNsat updates on current status

On a inquiry that we sent to CBNsat regarding the current status of their negotiations with any licensed operator, their Legal Manager Dilani Nandasiri said that once the licenses are issued they will enter into negotiations with the relevant operator.

Therefore it looks like CBNsat has not started negotiations with any party and they will do so once licenses are issued for someone.

Please keep us updated on the status of licenses being issued to other parties as well as any news about CBNsat as the days progress.

CBNsat clarifies their position

This is a reply to the email that was sent by us regarding the outcome of Monday (Sept 18th) Court hearing we wish to state that we received CBNsat's reply yesterday but we were unable to publish it yesterday. We like to like to thank Legal Manager of CBNsat, Dilani Nandasiri for taking time to reply. We raised issues such as the granting of refunds and their position on signing up with another operator. Given below is their reply.

"We do understand the frustration of the customers as we are experiencing it too. We also want to be fair by all concerned and it was not the customers' nor our intention either of terminating the services. However, we are not in a position to issue refunds at the moment whether we like it or not. Therefore we appeal to our customers to continue giving us the understanding, patience and support they have been very generous with so far.

As mentioned previously, we are considering certain options, one of them being to enter into an agreement with an operator that has already been issued with the necessary license for satellite broadcasting. Hence the reason our lawyers requested the court for permission to re-commence transmission through another operator pending the processing of our application. This was done in the interests of our customers and stake holders, in order to safeguard them from more delays.

This request was granted by the Supreme Court and we were given leave to commence transmission once we finalize any necessary commercial arrangements, without having to seek further permission, so although the next date for the Supreme Court hearing is the 6th of Nov 2006, it is not necessary to wait till then.

We do not have a fixed time as yet as to when we are shall be able to start as we only obtained the court's permission yesterday (Sept 18th). However, please rest assured that the things are moving ahead and it should not be long before we are once again able to enjoy the infotainment service much missed by all.

Dilani Nandasiri"

According to this email from CBNsat they seem confident of resuming services once they sign an agreement with another operator and as mentioned previously the only two who have received licenses now is SLRC and SLT. We are also made to understand from some of our readers that out of the 26 applications, most of the licenses are for the regional cable tv operators and a few others are for satellite based services - it is not clear how many and how many will be given the license. So probably CBNsat will be able to tie up with the companies who got the license to provide a satellite based service.

Please keep us updated on any new developments regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

SLRC please return the favor

So people you might have read the post below on CBNsat's Supreme Court hearing. It looks like they are now hoping to link up with SLRC and resume transmissions since SLRC has the license and SLT has also got a license.

Well we just hope SLRC did not forget the help granted by CBNSat to carry out transmissions to Jaffna and also that one of the people who instigated this problem (Mr. BACA aka Mr. B.A.C Abeywardena chairman Tv Lanka) questioned the legality of the SLRC satellite broadcasting station too on the Kangaroo Courts over Tv Lanka. CBNsat gave Rupavahini free access so please return the favor by helping CBNsat to resume transmissions. CBNsat customers will love Rupavahini more for this.

Now the upcoming Rupavahini World Channel will spell the death of Tv Lanka (please read TV Radio Sri Lanka forum for more news on this).

The Chief Justice's statement that the affidavit submitted by the Media Ministry Secretary will have to be heard as truth by the Court is nothing but nonsense. The Media Ministry lies big time and even though the CBNsat lawyers have said that they have not withdrawn an application the Media Ministry insists that they with drew the application. The CJ cannnot blindly accept the statement of the Media Ministry as the truth since they are not at all honest in this CBNsat matter. The Supreme Court seems gullible to everything the GOSL says.

The CJ in his first sitting was concerned about the CBNsat Subscribers but now he does not even consider the customers. What a change in attitude - is this him speaking or something he received making him talk like this.

There are 26 companies that have applied for licenses and CBNsat can link up with any one of them. A solution to this problem will have to be arrived at before Nov 6th since the wait is just too long and customers have been deprived of a basic human right and also employees jobs are at risk.

We also urge CBNsat to get the ball rolling and approach the locally licensed operators and resume services to their customers who are getting frustrated now. Failing which it is time to think of moving overseas.

Summary of Supreme Court hearing ... Sept 18th

Today's newspapers did not carry any information about the Supreme Court hearing of CBNsat. Did anyone see anything on the newspapers, at least we didn't. Due to this reason we are giving you a brief summary of yesterdays hearing.

The lawyer representing the media minister said that the MoD approval is still pending. Both CBNsat and SonicNet have applied for licenses but an affidavit of the media ministers secretary said that one application was withdrawn.

The lawyers representing CBNsat have fully denied this and said that they haven't withdrawn any applications. The Chief Justice has said that since the Media Ministry Secretary is a public servant who served for so many years his affidavit should be heard as truth by the courts.

CBNsat lawyers have also said that agreements with channel partners are confidential and cannot be disclosed to others without their consent. Chief Justice asked CBNsat to get the consent and forward it to the government authorities.

Defense concerns were not a major issue at the hearing. CBNsat lawyers have asked CJ's advice on operating until some time with the assistance of SLRC. Chief Justice said that he cannot give the order but they have to enter into a commercial agreement on the payment and staffinf terms, etc. It was also revealed that SLT have go the MoD clearance for the new license.

The Chief Justice who would have given another two months to but CBNsat lawyers managed to et the hearing date to November 6th (the fifth month annivesary of CBNsat shutdown).

We like to thank CBNsat Subscriber Unite for providing us with the above information.

Postponed once again..........

Well at least we are not surprised. According to unofficial reports the CBNsat supreme court case has been postponed to November 6th 2006.

According to these reports the reason for postponement is that the MoD wants to carry out further evaluation. It makes us wonder how we can trust the reports given by the MoD regarding the present war when they cannot be honest with a simple thing such as CBNsat. We wonder whether all the reports that we get from the front lines are all real. Are their conclusions on all the abductions and killings real? Are the casualty figures real?

We are beginning to have doubts on all the reports released by the government since they seem to be a very corrupted set of people, who are bent on protecting themselves and their henchmen. So maybe all what we hear about the war is nothing but a bunch of lies.

Coming back to CBNsat we are getting unconfirmed reports that they have requested court to uplink via SLRC. SLRC's involvement in this case is questionable and whether they will agree to allow CBNsat to uplink is also not certain. However it should be mentioned here that for money anyone can do anything so since they will be paying SLRC money for uplinking who knows they might just do it.

We would like to remind that the information received so far about the date of postponement and the request by CBNsat regarding SLRC is still unconfirmed. Please update us with the confirmed reports as the day progresses.

CBNsat Supreme Court hearing today (18th Sept)

The cycle continues today with CBNsat having a supreme court hearing. The MoD decision should be made known today if there are no more excuses being made. Sadly this is Sri Lanka and an excuse seems to be the best game plan.

The ever extending closing date for TRC applications for license for providing Cable television services has finally been closed from last friday and we have no reports of any more postponement.

We sincerely hope that CBNsat would get the green light from the MoD and necessary steps will be taken to restore the CBNsat transmissions taking into consideration the plight of its customers and employees.

Please keep us updated on the time of todays hearing as well as the result.

Monday (18th Sept) hearing......

Well we are heading into another weekend and the saga still continues. On monday (18th Sept) CBNsat is due to have their Supreme Court hearing.

We are receiving emails from bloggers in foreign countries regarding this cable tv shutdown which shows us that this news is now spreading internationally. This together with the present situation in sri lanka will cause a definite reduction in foreign investment.

We urge the authorities to take necessary measures to stabilize the cable tv industry and issue immediate resolutions to these problems. It is now three months and if these companies shutdown it will add to the ever increasing unemployment figures.

Please keep us updated on any news regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

CBNSat Replies........

Given below is the reply from CBNsat for the email that we sent them. We would like to thank CBNSat for taking time to reply.

Dear Admin

With reference to your email, we are indeed aware of the blog and the continuing support, encouragement and suggestions given by the bloggers which have not gone unnoticed, and for which we are extremely grateful. We would also like to thank the CBNSat Subscriber Unite group for their initiative and efforts.

Prior to the advertisement being published in the newspapers, the Management of CBNSat had personally written to H.E. the President asking for his intervention. We are currently awaiting a response from H.E. the President. We have not yet received any official communication with regard to the MoD clearance, however, we shall keep the blog informed once we receive confirmation.

In order to explain our position fully, CBNSat did have a press conference initially and we also sent a Newsletter to our subscribers. CBNSat has filed cases at every level of court hierarchy in order to restore the services to our customers as soon as possible. In addition to that, the Management is exploring certain alternatives but at the same time we have to carefully assess these alternatives fully, taking into account all relevant factors. As you yourself have mentioned, “there are vested interests behind the closure as well as they being the reason that the legal proceedings are being dragged further”. Therefore it may not be prudent to disclose the plan of action the Company is going to take in the event of further delays in obtaining the MoD clearance.

Please rest assured that the Company will not at any instance be filing for bankruptcy and we will do our very best to protect the jobs of 300+ employees as far as possible. We appreciate the patience and understanding shown by the bloggers and our customers of our current predicament and we give you our assurance that we will continue to fight for our rights as well as the rights of our customers to have CBNSat back on air again.

Please feel free to publish the full email on the blog.

Best Regards

Dilani Nandasiri
Manager Legal

Communiq Broadband Network (Pvt) Ltd.,

83, George R. De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 13, Sri Lanka

Tel : +94 11 460 6000 Fax : +94 11 460 6099

Today is CBNsat Appeal day

Almost forgot since we were trying to get some confirmation about this LakHanda Report. So before we get into all that remember this from the LBO report of 29th August 2006.

"We have sent our application to the Defense Ministry. They will file their findings by September 4 and we can submit our appeal by September 12," Dilani Nandasiri Legal Manager CBNSat told LBO." Please click here for the full report.

So since the Defense Ministry did not submit their findings by September 4th, we would like to know whether CBNsat is making any appeal today or are they awaiting the response from the MoD. Can anyone confirm this please.

CBNsat have communicated with us we are expecting a detailed email from them and we will post their response on this blog as soon as we get it.

In addition we are unable to confirm the contents of the so called Lakhanda Radio report regarding CBNsat. It looks like a false alarm from our point of view. Remember that some people may be posting misleading comments for us to lose target of our goal.

LBN has got the MoD approval and please refer LBN Blog for the response that we received from LBN.

Please keep us updated on any new developments regarding CBNsat as the days progress. Please do not post misleading comments on this blog.

CBNsat Appeals court hearing today (Sept 11th)

We have received information that CBNsat will be having an Appeals Court hearing today and this was from an email received from CBNsat as a response to our email. We feel that this is the same hearing that LBN is also having today. CBNsat has indicated that they will email us officially in reply to the issues raised by us.

Please keep us updated on the latest news regarding CBNsat's hearing today.

Do not worry we are still here

We are getting worried comments from people that this blog is silent. Well one reason is that in order to post anything new, we need new information.

We have not received any new information so that is the reason that we did not post anything.

We are also waiting for a reply from CBNsat for the questions that we asked them? Anyway this blog is still active. Do not worry about that.

On Sept 18th (next monday) is the CBNsat Supreme Court hearing. Today LBN is having a hearing and we are expecting the MoD report on LBN to be made known today. Please refer to LBN forum for more information about that.

Please keep us updated on the latest news regarding CBNsat.

3 Months since shutdown

Today is September 6th 2006 and we have completed 3 months since the shutdown of CBNsat. It was on a day like this on June 6th 2006 at approximately 9:20PM CBNsat was unfairly sealed and shut by the authorities acting under the influence of certain individuals.

Ever since that fateful day, the customers of CBNsat have not given up hope and have continued to fight for their rights. This blog which was formed to assist the customers of CBNsat to share information about the CBNsat service had to change its goal and fight for the rights of its customers.

We have managed to reach several milestones during this short time. Probably this is the first time in Sri Lanka that a blog has been used extensively as a tool for people to meet up and share information with a specific goal in mind. We have also been able to facilitate the formation of CBNsat Subscribers Unite which is probably the first time that the general public has formed a group and stood for their rights as consumers. We salute CBNsat Subscribers Unite in their endeavor to restore the rights of CBNsat subscribers.

We were able to get all the blogs belonging to TV Radio Sri Lanka onto www.kottu.org (a listing of all Sri Lankan blogs), but unfortunately the CBNsat and LBN blogs were removed from the site by the Kottu administrators on the reasons that we are publishing copied newspaper articles. However we did explain to the Kottu Admins that it is necessary for us to publish the newspaper articles since it facilitates the sharing of information regarding the reports of CBNsat and LBN. However they did say it was a temporary measure but as of now the CBNsat and LBN forums still continue to be removed from Kottu and only the TV Radio Sri Lanka and Comet Cable forums are on Kottu.

This has been an eventful 3 months and as of yesterday we have sent an email to Mr. Muhunthan Canagey, CEO CBNsat and we are eargerly awaiting his reply for some issues that we had raised. We trust we will get a reply.

We urge H.E President Mahinda Rajapakse to expedite the MoD response and provide relief to the customers of CBNsat. Sir, please meet with representatives of CBNsat as well as representatives of CBNsat Subscribers Unite since you yourself said that solutions to problems should be reached through negotiation. So please grant them appointments.

It is disappointing to note that News 1st & Live @ 8 have not responded in any way to the emails that we sent. We are eagerly awaiting their reply for the questions and requests raised by us.

As a blog we will not give up our fight to restore the services of CBNsat and we hope that neither of you will also, we have come 3 months as one unit and the situation looks bleak at this point in time but remember they will eventually run out of excuses. We have received information that CBNsat has not given up, and is continuing to put pressure on the authorities and it looks like they are very confident of resuming services.

Lets stick together and keep on fighting and see justice served.

CBNsat Subscribers Unite + CBNsat Blog + CBNsat = Victory

Admin
Tv Radio Sri Lanka

CBNsat Management Contact Info wanted

We need email addresses and contact information of someone in the management of CBNsat preferably the CEO Mr. Muhunthan.

We want to contact them directly regarding this MoD response among several other things and make a line of communication where they can get in touch with us directly. Please do not post these email addresses as comments but please email them to tvradiosrilanka@yahoo.com. We will not divulge their email address on this blog when we post their replies.

Also we got the following communication from LBN MD Mr. Shirantha Herath regarding an email we sent to him questioning the MoD response for LBN. Please refer LBN blog for further information.

"Shirantha Herath (LBN)" wrote:

The MOD clearance will be given direct to TRC and we have not heard if this has been received by the TRC.

Judging by this response it means that the response will probably be a mystery till 11th Sept Court hearing for LBN and we think it is the same situation with CBNsat too and they may not know till the court hearing on Sept 18th.

Please send us the contact information as soon as possible and if CBNsat management visits this blog please send us your contact information. Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat. By the way did CBNsat carry out any test transmission recently?

MoD clearance postponed to 18th September 2006?

The MoD clearance which should have been given yesterday has been postponed to 18th September 06 (the date of the Supreme Court hearing) according to information that we are receiving but we would like to state that we have not obtained any confirmation regarding this information. We are also receiving reports that CBNsat has sent an official communication to the President asking him intervene. But there has been no reply to the communication from the Presidents office. We like to request H.E. The President to take steps and intervene in this issue and sorts out things that have been thoroughly messed up.

On MinIT telecast over ETV yesterday there was a report saying that CBNsat and LBN have made official statements seperately saying that they will resume transmission once the MoD clearance is obtained and the license has been processed.

We would also like those who sent emails to News 1st and Live @ 8 to inform us whether you have received any replies from those esteemed organisations.

Please keep us updated on confirmed information regarding the MoD response to CBNsat as the days progress.

MoD Decision due to today (Sep 4th)

The Ministry of Defense is to give it's decision on CBNsat today. Well at least that is what was said at the last Supreme Court hearing. In another two days it will be three months since CBNsat was shutdown.

We hope that the MoD will give a favourable decision today taking into consideration the plight of the over 20,000 subscribers of CBNsat and over 300 staff members. We also have unconfirmed reports that the MoD will give it's decision on LBN also today which was postponed from its original date of Sep 1st.

We would like our readers to keep us updated on the decision by the MoD as well as any other information on CBNsat.

From CBNsat Subscribers Unite

Dear Fellow Subscribers,

Please send us your contact numbers to call you and get your point of view of the current situation. We have most of your contact numbers but we need your consent to pass on your contact details to a journalist who wants to interview and do a comprehensive article about the subscriber grievances.

We specially need subscribers out of Colombo.

Please respond ASAP with your home town and contact number !

Together we will fight for our rights !!!

"CBNSat Subscriber Unite"

Email address : cbnsat@gmail.com
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Please respond to the above request from Subscribers Unite and let your grievances be known and get them published in a newspaper. Well today(September 1st) LBN will be getting the response from the MoD regarding their application that was forwarded by the TRC to MoD and CBNsat will be getting the response by September 4th. Please keep us updated on any developments regarding CBNsat as we enter the first weekend of the month of September and just days away from completing three months since the shutdown of CBNsat.