NEW DELHI: If it's not CAS, then it has to be DTH. The government is now examining the issue of "open architecture" and whether a thing like that prevails at all or not.

According to government officials, the issue of open architecture and its standards, if available, is going to be referred to the Bureau of Indian Standards.

A senior government official admitted that though the government is likely to push ahead with open architecture - much to the chagrin of broadcasters who are insisting there is nothing of this sort and encryption technology is proprietary - it may refer the issue to BIS which is also looking into the matter of standardising the technology for set-top boxes which will be needed in case conditional access system is implemented.

The mandate for BIS would be to see if there are existing standards for open architecture and, if possible, the alternatives available.