India - undersea cable landing stations

Consultation Paper on Access to Essential Facilities (Including Landing Facilities for Submarine Cables) at Cable Landing Stations

From TRAI:

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had earlier observed that International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) segment is lacking competition needed for creating conducive environment for growth of various telecom services and requires soft regulatory intervention. In order to enhance competition in international bandwidth connectivity segment, TRAI had issued Consultation Paper No.5/2005 “Measures to Promote Competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India”, in June 2005. The Authority made recommendations to the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) on “Measures to Promote Competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India” on December 16, 2005. DOT accepted TRAI’s recommendations pertaining to (a) Introduction of Resale in IPLC segments and (b) Access to essential facilities including landing facilities for submarine cables at cable landing stations. The Licensor has also amended the relevant clauses in International Long Distance (ILD) Service licence to bring out regulations to ensure efficient, transparent and non discriminatory “Access to Essential Facilities including landing facilities for Submarine Cables at Cable Landing Stations (CLS)”.

TRAI believes that competition in IPLC segment could be enhanced if ILD licensees entering the market have adequate access to necessary facilities at cable landing stations. To ensure this access, the interconnection regulations should provide for dominant suppliers who control or who are responsible for the operation of the cable landing station to allow other licensees to (a) have access to the cable landing stations; (b) physically co-locate their own equipment necessary for connection in the cable landing stations; (c) interconnect at the cable landing station to any operator’s equipment in the cable landing station at any technically feasible point; and (d) access backhaul circuits of all types in a timely fashion, under terms & conditions and rates that are cost oriented, transparent, and non-discriminatory.

With a view to bringing out all the related aspects of the issues and to provide a suitable platform for discussion, this consultation paper (along with draft regulations) is being released in the public domain. It focuses on the approach and modalities on The International Telecommunication Access To Essential Facilities (including Landing Facilities for Submarine Cables) at Cable Landing Stations. Any expression of opinion in the document is to be read in the context of analysis of the option/data and not the final view of the Authority.