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`Will improve competitiveness in BPO, ITES sectors'

ADVANTAGE BPO

New Delhi June 6 The industry said that regulation on under-sea cable landing station announced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would improve the country's competitiveness in the BPO, ITeS and Internet sectors. TRAI has made it mandatory for cable landing station owners in the country including VSNL, Reliance and Bharti to open access to their facilities in a fair and transparent manner to other international long distance companies. TRAI has also asked the operators to publish a reference interconnect offer (RIO), specifying the terms of sharing the facility, within 30 days.

"The quick turnaround that TRAI has shown in coming out with the recommendations is commendable. This will introduce fair and open access at the cable landing stations for international connectivity providers with increased price competitiveness. Reductions in the costs of telecommunication services to consumers and businesses will serve to enhance and consolidate India's attractive cost position for outsourced off-shore call centre and business processing operations.

"However, critical next steps for the recommendations will be the CLS-RIO, which has yet to be framed. It would be beneficial to open the components of CLS-RIO along with the access facilitation agreement and pricing schedules to a public consultation. This will bring out the best arrangement at par with global market practices," said Mr Avnish Datt, Country Manager, Orange Business Services, India.

Utilisation

Internet Service Providers said the move would improve connectivity and better utilisation of existing capacities.

A number of submarine cables are landing in India. These submarine cables terminate at cable landing stations operated and managed by few ILD operators (ILDOs). "TRAI considers that access to these cable landing stations by other licensees is necessary for creating a conducive environment and boosting competition in the international bandwidth connectivity," TRAI said.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units, banks, small and medium enterprises, ISPs and other information technology enabled service providers. In addition, ILDOs also require international bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls. The regulation would facilitate provisioning of bandwidth to end consumers at cheaper rates.

More Stories on : ISPs | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Outsourcing | IT-enabled Services

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