New Delhi, Sept 26: With a view to facilitating easy
availability of international bandwidth and bringing effective
competition in its prices, telecom regulator TRAI has asked
the Department of Telecom to consider its recommendations at
the earliest.
"I request that TRAI's recommendations pertaining to
access to essential facilities at cable landing stations (CLS)
may be considered at the earliest," TRAI chairman Nripendra
Misra said in a letter to DoT Secretary D S Mathur.
TRAI had given recommendations to government in December
last year on measures to promote competition in international
private leased circuits (IPLC).
The regulator had recommended an equal access to
essential facilities at the CLS by the licensed operators, it
said, adding that the access at the CLS should also include
landing facilities for submarine cables.
The international long distance service providers
(ILDOS), TRAI had said, owning the CLS should be made mandated
to publish the terms and conditions for all such access
provision, with prior approval of the regulator.
TRAI's letter to dot assumes significance in the wake of
the ongoing fight between Reliance Communication owned Flag
Cable System and Tata-owned VSNL which owns the CLS.
In view of the changed scenario where easy norms have
been prescribed for the ILD segment, it is imperative to have
economically cost-based access to CLS's so that more and more
capacity can be utilized by the operators and various telecom
services including IPLC are available to consumers at lower
tariffs, TRAI said.
It said in the countries where there is enough
competition in the ILD segment, the regulators have mandated
cost-based access to various facilities at submarine CLS
through reference interconnect offer.
Bureau Report
