TRAI Extends Last Date For Seeking Views On Licensing Framework And Regulatory Mechanism For Submarine Cables

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the last date to seek comments from stakeholders on consultation paper on ‘Licensing Framework and Regulatory Mechanism for Submarine Cable Landing in India’.

TRAI had released the consultation paper on 23 December last year.

The last date for receiving comments on the issues raised in the Consultation Paper from the stakeholders was fixed as 20 January 2023 and for counter-comments as 3 February 2023.

"Keeping in view of the requests received from stakeholders/ associations for further extension of time for submission of comments and counter-comments, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of written comments and counter -comments up to 10 February, 2023 and   24 February, 2023 respectively," the Ministry of Communications said on Thursday (19 January).

The telecom regulator had last month issued the paper to seek views of stakeholders on the issues flagged in the reference received from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The DoT through its reference letter has approached TRAI, sharing its concern over some Indian International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) for not having any stake in submarine cable system yet seeking clearance on behalf of the owners of submarine cable for laying/maintaining such cables in Indian Territorial water/Exclusive Economics Zones and also for applying to set up of Cable Landing Station (CLS) for such submarine cables.

The department had sought recommendations of TRAI on licensing framework and regulatory mechanism for submarine cables landing in India within existing UL-ILD/ standalone ILD license. 

The consulation paper also discusses certain other issues related to submarine cables that the TRAI has suo-moto identified.

At present, there is no Indian marine service provider available who can support the submarine maintenance activities in and around Indian waters.

Dependency on foreign vessels/service providers involves high mobilisation time for the repair vessel to be mobilised from different locations in world map.

TRAI, in the present consultation paper, is seeking views of stakeholder on need and feasibility of Indian flagged vessel for carrying out submarine cable operation and maintenance smoothly in time-efficient manner.

Also, as the reliability and stability of submarine cable networks is very high as compared with the terrestrial optical fibre cable network, domestic submarine cables can be envisaged to improve digital connectivity/infrastructure of tier-I and tier-II cities on the Indian coast.

The paper intends to find out the deployment challenges and how to overcome them to promote domestic submarine cables in India.

Further, to explore the benefits and challenges involved in laying Stub-cables, a new concept of placing pre-laid open-ended “dark fiber” from the CLS through Beach Manhole (BMH) into the territorial waters for upcoming new cables has been discussed for seeking views of stakeholders.

Issues related to challenges being posed in establishing terrestrial connectivity between differently located Cable Landing Stations in India have also been raised for stakeholder's consultation in the paper, the ministry said.