By IANS,
New Delhi : Eighty-five percent digitisation has been achieved in the four metros of the country, the information and broadcasting ministry said Friday.
“In the four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, the percentage of digitisation has reached 85 percent. This figure has been achieved by considering digitisation of only the cable homes. Taking into account Direct-To-Home (DTH), the percentage of digitisation has gone up to 90 percent,” a statement, releasing latest figures for digitisation, said.
The ministry set Oct 31 as the last date for households in the four metros to install set-top boxes (STBs) to achieve complete digitisation.
The figures show Mumbai has achieved nearly 100 percent digitisation while Delhi has achieved 83 percent digitisation of cable homes and with DTH the figure is 88 percent.
In Kolkata, cable homes have reached 80 percent digitsation and 82 percent with DTH.
In Chennai, the cable homes digitisation is 61 percent an 85 percent with DTH.
The figures also show a sharp increase in the number of STBs being installed in homes.
In the last few days, the average number of STBs installed has jumped to almost 50,000 boxes per day.
As per data by DTH operators, daily installation in the four metros has gone up to 8,000 STBs per day from an average of about 2,000 STBs a few weeks back.
The ministry also refuted recent reports questioning the data being used by it for computing the progress made towards digitisation.
“It has also been reported that some field surveys have been conducted to assess the progress made in digitisation,” ut said.
“On examination, it has been found that these organisations relied on certain industry reports only. Even the data source has not been quoted and elaborated upon. It has been found that the surveys and analysis have not provided details of the sample size, sampling methodology, details of field visits and areas covered in the four metros, number of respondents, details of questionnaire, period of survey etc.,” it said.