Investments to the tune of at least Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) will be stuck if the government decides to postpone the implementation of the conditional access system.

Cable operators and cable network companies have invested heavily in making their networks CAS-ready.

• The New Cable TV Regime

There are about 80,000 set-top boxes imported by various companies currently staked up in warehouses across the country and this number is expected to go up to at least 125,000 in the next three months.

The largest investors are cable network companies like Hinduja TMT, Hathway and Siti Cable.

It is not just the large cable network companies, but cable operators also have had to spend at least Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) to convert equipment in each cable head-end.

Hinduja TMT's InCable made an investment of Rs 139 crore (Rs 1.39 billion) in CAS, which includes importing set-top boxes.

The company had placed and order for at least 300,000 boxes, Ashok Mansukhani, executive chairman, Hinduja TMT, said.

Hathway, the cable network joint venture of the Star group and the Rahejas, has planned a Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) initial investment for CAS.

The company has made big investments in converting its equipment in various parts of the country as well as to import set-top boxes.

According to S N Sharma, vice-president, Hathway, the company hopes that CAS is on schedule and it is seeding set top boxes at homes.

Hathway was looking at options like raising funds from the existing share holders as well as from financial institutions to fund it CAS project.

If CAS roll out is delayed, the company would be stuck up with the imports it has made as well as the investments it has made in the ground network.

According to Jawahar Goel of Siti Cable, "We have prepared to roll out CAS. But it there is a roll back, our investments would go waste. We are making substantial investments in rolling out CAS."