TRAI's regulation to provide open access at cable landing stations

New Delhi, June 7 (UNI) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today released 'International Telecommunication Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations, 2007', which provides for the non-discriminatory, fair and open access at the cable landing stations.

''Access to the cable landing stations by other licensees is neccessary for creating a conducive environment and boosting competition in the international bandwidth connectivity and leased circuits segment,'' TRAI said in a statement.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units, call centres, banks, small and medium enterprises, ISPs and other information technology enabled service providers. In addition, International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) also require international bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls.

TRAI had said the owners of Cable Landing Stations will have to submit 'Cable Landing Station Reference Interconnect Offer (CLS-RIO)' containing the terms and conditions of access facilitation and co-location facilities including landing facilities at cable landing stations for International submarine cable capacity in accordance with the specified schedule and provisions in the Regulation within 30 days to the Authority for approval.

The Authority shall approve the CLS-RIO within 60 days.

The Regulation would facilitate bandwidth provision to end consumers at competitive rates and will boost competition, thus reducing price of international private leased circuits (IPLCs).

It will also ensure availability of international bandwidth at competitive price to ISPs for rapid growth of broadband service and will offer options to ILDOs to purchase international bandwidth at competitive prices on a range of diversified submarine cables.

''Access to submarine Cable Landing Stations (CLSs) is considered an essential input for many telecom services needing international connectivity. Any access barriers to such facility can constrain the competitiveness of telecom operators and become detrimental to healthy growth of international telecom market''.

In pursuance of the recommendations on 'Measures to promote competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India', the Department of Telecommunications, after accepting the recommendations, has also amended the relevant clauses in International Long Distance (ILD) Service Licence to ensure efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory access facilities for submarine cables CLSs.

The Regulation provides the time limits for owner of Cable Landing Station for various activities in access facilitation including the provision for co-location facility. It has a provision for a minimum commitment period of three years for co-location facility and its renewal till the term of lease of International capacity on submarine cable at cable landing station subject to no default and breach by eligible Indian International Telecom Entity.

UNI