New Delhi: Vowing to protect consumers' interest, the new broadcasting regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said today (Jan 21, 2004) it will strive to end the monopoly of cable operators by creating an atmosphere for entry of more players while regulating industry tariffs in the interim.

"We will examine cable operators' monopoly...we created competition in the telecom sector to end monopoly and the same philosophy should work in broadcasting sector...all networks suffer from monopoly," TRAI chief Pradip Baijal said in an interview.

About the modus operandi to eliminate monopolies, he said the regulator would strive for creating competition in the sector. "May be we will consider allowing three operators in an area... and till such time that there is no competition, we can regulate tariffs."

He, however, did not get into the nitty-gritty of charges by the cable operators saying, "We are very new to the subject and have started the consultation process to understand it better.

"Our focus is consumers and we will take all decisions keeping them in mind," he asserted, but did not give a time frame for completion of the consultation process.

Baijal said cable business could suffer heavily if the operators kept increasing tariffs arbitrarily. He also said the sector should be regulated since this was being done in almost all countries.

"Perhaps India and Taiwan are the only nations where the cable and broadcasting industry is not regulated...we will study the rules and systems followed in other countries," he said.