DoT flags Airtel, Jio, Sify cable landing stations, as cos have “no stake”

Even though the applications have been approved, the DoT is concerned that telcos without a stake in international undersea cables are applying for landing station authorisations.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has expressed uneasiness over Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Sify Technologies applying for undersea cable landing station authorisations when these companies don’t have any stake in the cable networks they’re connecting to Indian internet networks, according to an RTI response obtained by The Hindu. Undersea cables carry much of the global internet traffic that goes between different countries. Various permissions from different government agencies are required to land these cables on Indian shores and connect them to different telecom and internet providers’ networks.

Reliance Jio has applied for authorisations for landing the IAX and IEX international cable systems in India; Airtel has applied for the 2Africa and SEA-ME-WE-6 cable systems; and Sify has applied for authorisation for the Blue Raman cable system. These systems connect to various port cities in India and other continents in the world and are paid for by consortiums of telecom operators around the world.

While the DoT has flagged the concern over a lack of a stake, the licensor clarified in its RTI response that “based on the claims of the [International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs)] that they own the telecom resources within Indian territorial waters, they have been permitted to carry out survey/cable laying/repair and maintenance for respective cable systems.” The matter has been referred to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which is conducting a public consultation process to issue policy recommendations.

“Sify’s focus remains on being compliant to all DoT regulations for any capacity landing in India,” Praveen Krishna, a Sify spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. Referring to the Blue Raman system, which Sify claims has more capacity than other cable systems in India, the company said that it has already “received a permit-in-[principle] after which we started work on the project”. Spokespersons for Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel did not provide a statement.

Licensees “shall make sure that they have significant stake in such entities [consortiums] on behalf of whom they are applying for security clearances else they don’t have any locus standi in the case,” the DoT had told Reliance Jio in a 2021 letter provided to The Hindu.

The TRAI consultation paper notes that “concerns are being raised by the [telecom] industry that enforcing stake condition in submarine cables can put the country on disadvantageous position for international connectivity and have urged DoT not to mandate this condition.”