TATT opens Android box consultations

Android box users now have the chance to petition the regulator to keep their gadgets, as the Telecommunications Authority (TATT) opens the first round of public consultations for its "Discussion Paper on Android Boxes in TT".

In a newspaper advertisement, TATT invited members of the public to submit comments on the document by August 10. The draft consultative document and comment submission form is available on TATT's website, www.tatt.org.tt, or email consultation@tatt.org.tt for more information. Printed copies are available at TATT's offices in Barataria in Trinidad and Lowlands in Tobago. Android boxes are devices used to stream online content on one's television.

TATT had first announced it would be beginning public consultations on the devices just over a week ago, after lobbying from subscription television service providers, who had complained to the authority that illegal content streaming was cutting into their revenues. Among the considerations TATT said then would be a possible ban on android boxes, stricter regulations on their importation, and even blocking certain websites in TT.

There are an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 android boxes in Trinidad– an industry average calculated using at the difference in the number of people with both a paid TV subscription broadband internet connection and the number of people who have just a broadband connection. Revenue for subscription TV providers has been dwindling in the last few years, with TATT estimating a drop from $183 million in the last quarter of 2016, to $164 million in the same period for 2017.

Android boxes, then, have also cost the government an estimated $30 million in value added tax (VAT), not including losses from licensing fees and royalty payments. The public has not been pleased by TATT's announcement. Following Newsday's first report of TATT's considerations, one reader, an android programmer named Hakeeb Nandlal, said the argument to ban android boxes was "flawed" and by that logic, they should just ban the internet, since android boxes aren't the only way to stream online content.