TRAI recommends ‘essential services’ status for submarine cable network

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday recommended adding a section in the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, to promote, protect and prioritise submarine cables and cable landing stations (CLS) since they are critical assets.

In its recommendations for a licensing framework and regulatory mechanism for submarine cables in India, it also suggested that the operation and maintenance of CLS and submarine cables should be accorded ‘essential services’ status.

“The authority recommends that Department of Telecom (DoT) should expedite the implementation of recommendations made by TRAI on submarine cable (SMC) related issues in its recommendation on “Ease of Doing Business in Telecom and Broadcasting Sector” dated May 2, 2023. In addition to various SMC-related clearances mentioned in those recommendations, the authority also recommends that the clearances related to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Coastal Region Zone (CRZ) may also be made online as a part of Saral Sanchar portal,” it said.

TRAI also suggested that, rather than the mandatory presence of DoT officials, survey data may be collected under the supervision of the Defence Ministry and Indian representatives/ licensee officials, who shall ensure safeguards.

Gujarat model
“The authority reiterates its recommendation on ‘Regulatory Framework for Promoting Data Economy Through Establishment of Data Centres, Content Delivery Networks, and Interconnect Exchanges in India’ that other coastal States intending to promote setting up of CLS may consider incentives and facilitations as has been done by State of Gujarat in its IT/ ITeS Policy 2022-27,” the regulator said.

It also said that DoT should ensure that State governments provide incentive only to an ILD/ ISP (international long distance/ internet service provider) category-A (with international gateway permission) licensee that has a valid agreement to land cable with a consortium that owns submarine cable or a company that privately owns full cable.

““RoW [right of way] charges for laying and maintaining optical fibre cable (OFC) infrastructure to CLS may be waived off for encouraging and supporting the new CLS establishment for submarine cables,” it added. The Hindu BusinessLine