Indigenous CAS to be seeded in 2.5 lakh set top boxes

Set-top-boxes (STBs) are set to become cheaper after the installation of first domestically developed conditional access system (CAS), which is about 80 per cent cheaper than the imported solution, in 2.5 lakh STBs.
"ByDesign is required to tie up with at least 5 Operators and install STB with iCASTM in atleast 2,50,000 STBs. The implementation of iCASTM in the cable networks has already started," the Department of Electronics and IT said in a statement today.
Bengaluru-based ByDesign India was selected and awarded the task for development and implementation of Indian Conditional Access System (iCASTM) in association with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in November, 2014. C-DAC was responsible for design review, code review, monitoring, testing and validation of the entire project.

The Development Stage of iCASTM was successfully completed on November 14 within specified time.
"The iCASTM is also beneficial to domestic STB manufacturers because it is available to them at a price of USD 0.5 per license for a period of three years as against market price of USD 4-5 per license for other competing products," the statement said.
The implementation of iCASTM in the cable networks has already started. More than 25,000 STBs with iCASTM have already been deployed across the country in last 2 months, from Haldwani in the North to Madurai in the South and Durgapur in the East to Satara District in the West.

ICASTM already supports 7 Indian Languages and shall support 15 more languages in near future. It is tested at the Cryptography Verification Labs, accredited by NIST, USA, and has also been widely field tested in Indian conditions, the statement said.
The project was funded by the DeitY for promotion of Electronics design and manufacturing in the country.
The global STB market is estimated to be about 250 Million STBs per annum and the CAS market is expected to be nearly USD 2 Billion per annum. The projected demand in India for completing the digitisation of broadcasting network is nearly 100 Million STBs, thereby signifying an attractive domestic market.