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After a few hours of Indian telecom honchos including Sunil Bharti Mittal of OneWeb asking for auctioning satellite spectrum to create a level-playing field with traditional mobile operators, tech billionaire Elon Musk thanked the Indian government for not agreeing to the idea and providing the spectrum administratively.
Reacting to Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s statement that satellite spectrum will not be auctioned, Musk, who owns Starlink, in a post on X said, “Much appreciated! We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink.”
On Tuesday, Mittal joined Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla, to make a strong case for auctioning satellite spectrum to create a level-playing field with traditional mobile operators. This puts the three big Indian business honchos directly in confrontation with American tech honchos including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who have been asking for administrative allocation of spectrum to launch satellite communication services in India.
However, the same evening, Scindia clarified that satcom spectrum will be allocated administratively as mentioned in the Telecom Act of 2023.
“The Telecom Act of 2023, which was passed in December of last year, has very, focused on schedule one, which means that satcom spectrum will be allocated administratively,” he said.
However, he also added that spectrum “does not” come without a cost. “What that cost is and what the formula of allocation is going to be, will not be decided by you or me. It will be decided by TRAI,” Scindia said adding that satellite spectrum across the world is administratively allocated.
Meanwhile, Anil Kumar Lahoti, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday said that consultation process is currently going on on satellite communication, and that it will consider all inputs from stakeholders, before taking a considered view.
- Also read: RJIO questions TRAI paper’s ‘tilt’ towards allocating spectrum for satellite services sans auction
India Mobile Congress 2024
Speaking on the sidelines of the India Mobile Congress 2024 (IMC 2024), said that “different stakeholders raise different demands on the consultation process, and we consider all these viewpoints and inputs and take a considered view.”
He said that TRAI has received reference from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the regulator has initiated consultation process in response to reference that has been received from DoT and it covers issue that have been referred to TRAI by the DoT.
Asked about the demand by Reliance Jio that the TRAI consultation paper be revised to ensure a level playing field between terrestrial and satellite players, Lahoti said, “different stakeholders raise different demands on the consultation process, and we consider all these viewpoints and inputs and take a considered view.
Speaking on the sidelines of IMC 2024, AK Bhatt, Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA) said, “The government’s intent which was defined in the Telecom Act 2023, which clearly laid down assignment of satellite spectrum by administrative method and which is a globally harmonised practice for using this shared spectrum, has now been defined. The satellite industry awaits the final allocation of spectrum for space at the earliest after TRAI finalises the method of costing of the spectrum for space.”
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