What is Cable Landing Station in India?

Cable Landing Stations are units that enable international gateways of the Internet – providing a way for voice and other internet data to traverse between domestic and international networks.

The Department of Telecommunication, on behalf of the President of India, invited ISPs, the Internet Service Providers, to set up Submarine Cable Landing Stations as the International gateway of the Internet.

However, to set up a cable landing station, the ISPs have to prove to the DoT that they are capable of complying with all the requirements of the landing station and have the financial and technical capacity to do so. That's where Registrationwala comes in.

We provide complete registration services for Cable Landing Stations in India. 

Eligibility Criteria to set up a cable landing station

As per the DoT rules concerning the International gateways of the Internet, the following are the eligibility criteria for setting up a Cable Landing Station:

• The applicant must be an incorporated company.
• The applicant must be a holder of an ISP License.
• The applicant's Cable Landing Station has to be located within the service area for which the applicant has the ISP License.
• The applicant must provide adequate monitoring and encryption facilities to monitor the traffic.
• The applicant must not engage in any activity considered against the nation's interest.

General Guidelines for Submarine Cable Landing Station in India 

Usage 

• The Cable Landing Station for International Gateway for the Internet must be
• Within the service area of the applicant ISP licensee
• Used only for carrying Internet traffic for rendering internet gateway services
• Must not be used for any unlawful activity
• Must not be used against the general public interest 

Configuration 

• The Satellite Cable Landing Station configuration must comply with the ISPs as per the specifications.
• If the configurations have to be amended, it must be done with prior written permission from the Telecom Authority. 

Authority 

• The Landing Station must be set up only after getting permission or clearance from the Telecom Authority.
• Any information the Telecom Authority asks for from the licensee must be provided immediately.
• The information demanded by the authority must be submitted within 15 days from the date of issue. 

Inspection 

The Telecom Authority or personnel authorized by the Telecom Authority reserves the right to carry out a surprise inspection at the Cable Landing Station to ensure that only internet traffic is carried through the Landing Station.

The authorities will also ensure that the Cable Landing Station is not used for unlawful activities or against the public interest. 

Permission 

• The ISP license must obtain all the appropriate clearances or permissions required as per the land's jurisdiction.
• If they are not co-located, the transmission link between the ISP node or point of presence and the Landing Station must be regulated as per the ISP license agreement.
• The transmission link should be from
  1. DoT (Department of Telecommunications)
  2. Licensed Basic service operators
  3. Railways
  4. State Electricity Board
  5. National Powergrid Corporation
  6. Any authorized operator who can lease such links to an ISP. 

Multiple ISPs 

• The ISP must provide information about all ISPs connected to the Landing Station.
• If any other ISP wants to connect with the Landing station, then it must get prior written permission from the Telecom Authority.
• Any change or addition in the network topology of the Landing Station must be done only with the prior written permission of the Telecom Authority.
• Any change or addition in the type of services offered must be with the prior written permission of the Telecom Authority. 

Security-sensitive Areas 

• Landing stations must not be set up in security-sensitive areas.
• The Internet nodes covering places of security importance must be routed through VSNL only.
• The security-sensitive areas are updated periodically.
• The security-sensitive areas are
  1. Punjab,
  2. Jammu and Kashmir,
  3. The North-Eastern States,
  4. Rajasthan and Andaman & Nicobar Islands borders and
  5. Gujarat and Tamilnadu (excluding Chennai) coastal borders.
• The Telecom Authority  (Licensor) reserves the right to change security-related requirements. 

Subscribers 

• The ISP licensee must submit all the available billing details of the subscribers to the Telecom Authority as per their demand.
• The ISP licensee must block those internet sites and individual subscribers, as identified by the Telecom Authority. 

Location 

The Satellite Cable Landing Station in India must be within 100 km of the seashore. 

Remote Accessing

The Cable Landing Station must ensure the Remote Accessing or Log-in facility for security agencies. These facilities must be secured with unique passwords. Each agency must have a different password. The access password must be changeable by the security agency concerned.

The Cable Landing Station must also ensure the monitoring of the same traffic by more than one security agency simultaneously. 

Office Space 

The Cable Landing Station must establish an office space of 20 x 20 square feet with adequate uninterrupted power supply and air-conditioning. The space must also be physically secured and accessible only to the personnel authorized by Telecom Authority. Lastly, it must be provided by the licensee at each location, free of cost. 

Cable Landing Station Monitoring facilities

A simplified look at the Cable Landing Station guidelines

From the national security point of view, only Internet data traffic is carried out to monitor the traffic at the Submarine Cable Landing Station effectively. The following are the guidelines issued by the Department of Telecommunications. The registered landing station in India must observe these guidelines. 

Data Traffic 

• A Cable Landing Station (CLS) must ensure that only Internet data traffic is carried through, not the voice traffic.
• A CLS must monitor from all security angles, whether online or offline. It must capture, store, and retrieve information on all traffic classes. This data traffic includes Internet, video, audio, etc. specified by various attributes, viz. destination, recipient, sender, keywords, etc.
• Government-authorized agencies must be able to monitor all types of traffic passing through the CLS terminals. The traffic might include raw data, FAX, speech, video, and multimedia. It can be available in both interactive and non-interactive modes.
• The CLS must ensure the data monitoring based on keywords, key expressions, IP & e-mail addresses of initiating or terminating subscribers. 

Traffic Filtering

• The Cable Landing Station must be able to scan the entire traffic passing through the gateway.
• It must also be able to filter the traffic per the keywords or key expressions and addresses defined by the security agencies.
• Filtered traffic should be stored in the memory or directory provided for the security agencies which have defined the monitoring requirement.
• Before storing the monitored information, it should be segregated and stored in the directory in different files.
• Also, the filtered information must be decoded and stored so that a direct hard copy of FAX and data or audio/video tapes of the speech/video recording could be produced.
• A log of recorded information for each agency must be created in the directory of the agency concerned, which displays the details like the date and time of recording and the number of records.

Monitoring Centre

• The Cable Landing Station must provide a dedicated space, memory, directory, or storage in the Monitoring Centre.
• The CLS must ensure that the monitoring agencies have access to the monitoring centre computer.
• This access must be catered through PSTN line, ISDN line, or dedicated lines (Cable pair or Optical link).
• Also, an adequate number of interfaces must be provided at the monitoring centre to facilitate remote access for security agencies. 

Monitoring Infrastructure Equipment

• The ISP licensee must install the monitoring equipment at the Landing Station.
• After installation of the monitoring equipment, the ISP licensee should get the same inspected by monitoring and security agencies.
• The authority can permit to operation or commission of the gateway only after this.
• The licensee must bear the cost of the monitoring equipment, including its commissioning.

Software

The Cable Landing Station must provide the security agencies' monitoring software free of cost, especially for monitoring traffic at cable landing terminals. In addition to the equipment, the Submarine Cable Landing Station must have one local exclusive telephone line at the monitoring centre at the licensee's cost.

Maintenance

The Submarine Cable Landing Station must bear the maintenance cost of the equipment and infrastructure at the monitoring centre located at its premises.

Technical Details

The Submarine cable Landing Station must provide all technical details and access to various equipment of the facility. This includes hardware, software, and communications equipment when the Telecom Authority demands it.

Administrative Cost

Every Cable Landing Station must pay a contribution of Rs 20 lakhs per annum towards the administrative cost for performing the monitoring function.

Personnel Training

The Cable Landing Station must provide the necessary training to the security personnel. These personnel will guard the monitoring equipment installed at the Station.

Network Management System

The monitoring agencies must give a terminal of the NMS with full access rights. Therefore, the cable landing station must have a state-of-the-art network management system to monitor and manage the network effectively.

 

Documents Required for Setting up a Cable Landing Station

 The following are the documents required to apply for permission to set up a Cable Landing Station:

• Certificate of Incorporation
• Memorandum of Association
• Articles of Association
• ISP License Agreement
• Resolution of the Board of Directors
• Details of Foreign Equity, if any.
• Demand Draft of the application processing fee

Details of the Cable Landing Station:

The applicant is expected to submit the following details of their proposed Submarine Cable Landing Stations:

• Location
• Name of the submarine cable
• Total fiber capacity
• Terminal landing stations
• Configuration of the fiber cables
• Configuration of the repeater
• Technology
• List of all terminal equipment
• Details of the monitoring equipment

 

Procedure of setting up Cable Landing Station

Following is the procedure for applying for permission to set up a Cable Landing Station:

• Document gathering
• Application filing
• Application's assessment
• Grant of permission to set up a landing station.

Licensing Fee

• The license processing fee for a Cable Landing station is Fifty thousand rupees.
• This fee is non-refundable.
• The payment must be made in the form of a Demand Draft payable to the headquarters of the Pay & Accounts Officer, DoT.
• The licensing fee must be submitted with the application, without which the application will not be processed. 

Telecom Authority

• The Telecom Authority must have the full rights to monitor all the traffic that goes through the Cable Landing Station.
• Also, the licensee must ensure that the bandwidth provider gives complete monitoring rights to the Telecom Authority.
• In addition, the licensee must get assurance from the bandwidth provider that it will co-operate with the Telecom Authority. It will also provide the information requested by the Telecom Authority, including the issue above of monitoring.
• Besides, The Station must provide a suitable monitoring equipment system to cater to the user requirements in the application.
• The licensee must submit a detailed network diagram, including the monitoring setup. And the licensee must be able to demonstrate the efficacy of the monitoring equipment. 

Landing Station Regulations

Complaints 

• Suppose a complaint is filed regarding the bandwidth from the Submarine Cable station or any subscriber regarding service. In that case, it is a matter between the licensee, the bandwidth provider, or the subscriber. The Licensor must not indulge in such a dispute.
• The licensee can indemnify the Licensor if any action is taken against the Licensor for committing or omitting by or on the part of the bandwidth provider or the licensee, its agents and servants. 

Restrictions

• The ISP licensee cannot claim any right or will not get any special preference to carry voice traffic if the sector is opened up for private participation.
• The ISPs must ensure that the Cable Landing Station does not interfere with any other existing systems of the DTO (Department of Telecom Operations) or any telecom service provider.

Intrusion

The Cable Landing Station must report any attempted intrusion evidently, that comes to the licensee's notice immediately to the Telecom Authority.

Terms & Conditions

The ISP licensee would take all necessary steps to ensure that these terms and conditions and the terms and conditions of the ISP licence are complied with by themselves as well as by the subscribers/entities who use the service through the ISP licencee.

 

How can we help?

From gathering the documents to conducting the research, from filing the application to following up with the Department – our team of Registrationwala takes care of all the aspects of the application filing process.

Just reach out to us, and we will start the application filing process.