ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is likely to review the Telecom Infrastructure Provider (TIP) licencing framework and may reorganise it for the advent of Carrier Neutral Data Centres and Cable Landing Stations Infrastructure Service Providers by opening up the market to new entrants, as well as, existing licensees.
Official documents revealed that owing to increasing indigenous demand for local/ international content, collection and processing of data and for improving the access to internet, the PTA is likely to organise a study to assess the prevailing market practices concerning co-locations services, cross/ inter connects and cloud services and the impact of carrier neutral data centres and cable landing stations on existing market.
With the help of such a study, the PTA shall review the Telecom Infrastructure Provider (TIP) licensing framework and shall reorganise it for the advent of Carrier Neutral Data Centres and Cable Landing Stations Infrastructure Service Providers by opening up the market to new entrants, as well as, existing licensees.
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The licensing obligations for interested investors/ licensees shall be articulated in accordance with the stipulations of Personal Data Protection Act – 2021 and other appropriate guidelines in practice.
To lower market barriers for new entrants, all telecom infrastructure and services licensees shall be obliged to ensure their presence for cross/ inter-connect purposes. The PTA shall invite international operators to host their services in such facilities by having inter/ cross connect arrangements with local licensees.
No international operator shall be permitted to offer their services directly in the market without having a license or a formal arrangement with a legitimate licensee under intimation to the PTA.
For ensuring necessary compliance, the PTA shall visit such facilities periodically and shall ensure maximum transparency of the different services being rendered by the facility owners.
Licensees shall be obliged to establish lawful interception at all such facilities as part of licensing obligation. All such facilities shall adhere to National Cybersecurity Policy -2021 directives for securing the locations and the same shall apply on all the hosted service providers.
International operators/ service providers using such facilities for telephony/ internet traffic transit purposes without landing the traffic locally shall be exempted from lawful interception and other obligations applied on local licensees.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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