The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper titled data communication services between aircraft and ground stations provided by organisations other than the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The Department of Telecommunication (DoT), through its letter dated April 12, 2022, had inter-alia stated that very high frequency (VHF) data link services consist of the data for tracking the aircraft for the safety of flights. The Ministry of Communications had made frequency assignments to Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautique (SITA) and Bird Consultancy Services to operate VHF data communication links between aircraft and ground stations. Considering that VHF data link services to provide aircraft communication addressing and reporting (ACAR) service can be beneficial to track aircraft on a real-time basis and help investigations, search and rescue operations in the event of an aviation disaster, DoT had requested TRAI under the terms of clause 11(1)(a) of the TRAI Act, 1997 (as amended) to provide recommendations on the following:
- An appropriate mechanism to regulate the services provided by these organisations
- The manner in which the frequency assignment should be made to these organisations, in light of the Supreme Court judgment made in the 2G case in 2012 to assign radio frequencies only through auction.
In this regard, a consultation paper on data communication services between aircraft and ground stations provided by organisations other than AAI, seeking inputs from stakeholders has been placed on TRAl’s website. Written comments on the issues raised in the consultation paper are invited from stakeholders by January 9, 2023, and counter comments by January 23, 2023.
