TRAI approves cable landing rates of VSNL, RCom and Bharti

Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has approved the reference interconnect offer (RIO) of the three undersea cable owners - Reliance, Bharti and VSNL - which would act as a access guidance between cable landing station owners and prospective users.

This would pave the way for long distance operators and internet service providers to access the trios'' cable landing systems at competitive rates.

The three undersea cable station owners were asked by TRAI to submit the cable landing station - reference interconnect offer, containing the terms and conditions, charges and time limit for providing access.

A senior TRAI official said in the absence of a regulation, there is a scope for non-provisioning of access by these players to the bandwidth users like ISPs, ILDOs and other corporate users while adding the reference RIO.

TRAI has approved the RIO of four cable landing stations of VSNL, and one each of Bharti and Reliance Communications.

Currently, there are six cable landing stations, of which four are controlled by the Tata-managed VSNL. Bharti and Reliance have a landing station each in Chennai and Mumbai respectively.

VSNL International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), operates the submarine cable systems and provides access to critical infrastructure and onward connectivity from the planned Guam landing station.

Reliance Communication''s FLAG operates the Europe cable, Flag Atlantic, which connects Europe and the US and FLAG North Asia.

Bharti and Reliance have a landing station each in Chennai and Mumbai respectively.