• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi , Sept. 25

In a bid to bring down the prices of international bandwidth, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has urged the Government to speed up its policy on providing equal access to cable landing stations to all operators without discrimination.

The telecom regulator had made a recommendation in December 2005 which had mandated equal access to bottleneck facility at cable landing stations for submarine cables by operators. After more than nine months, the Department of Telecom is yet to take a view on the TRAI proposals.

The TRAI Chairman, Mr Nripendra Misra, in a letter written to the DoT Secretary, Mr D.S. Mathur, said, "In view of the changed scenario where easier entry norms have been prescribed for the international long distance segment, it is imperative to have economical cost-based access to cable landing station so that more and more capacity will be utilised by the operators and various telecom services are available to consumers at lower tariffs."

The TRAI letter assumes significance in the light of the three-year-old spat between Reliance-controlled under sea cable system FLAG and VSNL over access to landing cable station.

While VSNL claims that it has allowed upgradation of the FLAG Cable at competitive charges, Reliance had claimed that the access charges being levied by VSNL are unrealistically high. Both sides are now deliberating on the issue at an international tribunal.

TRAI, in its letter, has noted that VSNL, is presently the only operator who has the capability to offer diversity and redundancy in submarine cable capacities because it owns four cable landing stations"Only about 20 per cent of the 400 GB capacity is being utilised by various telecom operators,," it said. .

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
TRAI presses for equal access at cable landing stations

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line