KOHAT: People here have demanded digital cable network system to watch more TV channels. They also urged PTCL to improve the quality of transmission of TV Box which could be installed in almost every house which had DSL facility so that they could watch all the channels at half the rate charged by cable operators.

One of five cable networks here was showing BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, etc among 130 channels whereas others were still using old analogue system and offering 65 to 70 channels.

When contacted, Asad Khan of Tele-Channel Network told this scribe that he had both analogue and digital systems and showed over 130 channels for Rs400 a month.

He alleged that majority of the cable operators were using analog system against the 2015 government notification. He said that he had installed boxes in the customers’ houses which cost him Rs3,500 each. However, he claimed that the customers were least interested in buying them, so he provided them free of cost.

When contacted, Mr Yasir and Zahid Nazar of DSL service of PTCL said that the installation charges of the box were Rs4,000 with a monthly fee of Rs250 for 170 channels. They said that many people hired the PTCL box on DSL, but returned it due to buffering and some technical problems in broadcast as it required high MBs which were not available in Kohat.

POLYTHENE BAGS SEIZED: The district administration on Thursday destroyed over one ton of polythene bags confiscated from shopkeepers.

AAC Samiullah and Abbas Afridi seized the polythene bags from 34 shops during raids. The administration had banned polythene bags a month ago and distributed paper bags. They said that new wide drains were being constructed to avoid problem of choking, but if polythene bags were used the problem would arise again.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2018