The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is likely to review the Telecom Infrastructure Provider (TIP) licensing framework and reorganize it in preparation for the arrival of Carrier Neutral Data Centers and Cable Landing Station infrastructure service providers by opening up the market to new and existing licensees.
According to official papers, this is due to an increase in indigenous demand for local/international content, data collecting and processing, and improved internet access.
PTA is anticipated to conduct a research to examine current market practices for co-location services, cross/interconnects, and cloud services, as well as the influence of carrier-neutral data centers and cable landing stations on the present market.
PTA will review the Telecom Infrastructure Provider (TIP) licensing framework and reorganize it to prepare for the arrival of Carrier Neutral Data Centers and Cable Landing Station infrastructure service providers by opening up the market to new entrants as well as existing licensees with the help of such a study.
The licensing requirements for interested investors/licensees will be outlined in accordance with the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act of 2021, as well as other relevant recommendations in practice.
All telecom infrastructure and services licensees will be required to assure their presence for cross/inter-connect purposes in order to minimize market barriers for new entrants.
By establishing inter/cross-connect arrangements with local licensees, PTA would invite multinational operators to host their services in such facilities.
Without a license or a written arrangement with a genuine licensee under intimation to PTA, no overseas operator will be allowed to sell their services directly in the market.
PTA will visit such facilities on a regular basis to guarantee necessary compliance and to ensure maximum transparency of the various services provided by the facility owners.
As part of their licensing obligations, licensees will be required to establish lawful interception at all such sites. All of these facilities will follow the guidelines in the National Cybersecurity Policy – 2021 for safeguarding their locations, and the same will be true of all hosted service providers.
International operators/service providers who use such facilities for telephony/internet traffic transit and do not land the traffic locally will be immune from lawful interception and other duties imposed on local licensees.
In this regard, PTA will develop a simple encouraging framework in collaboration with respective stakeholders and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) to effectively utilize the technology zones/industrial zones already established in Pakistan, as well as other investment model facilitations with redundant commercial power and redundant optic connectivity ecosystems.
To read our blog on “PTA formulates a legal framework for short-range devices and terrestrial IoT services,” click here.