The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued the Consultation Paper on ‘Licensing Framework and Regulatory Mechanism for Submarine Cable Landing in India’.
Key points
- Submarine cables are vital communication infrastructure of the digital age and critical to the today’s fast-paced data driven economy.
- According to data received from owners of Cable Landing Station, India has around seventeen submarine cables terminating at fourteen distinct cable landing stations.
- In addition, a number of new submarine cables are in pipeline for rollout, which will make landfall at different coastal cities of India.
- Presently, there is no Indian marine service provider available who can support the submarine maintenance activities in and around Indian waters.
- 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.
- 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. Dark fibers, also known as unlit fibers, are already laid fibers but remain unused.
