India's telecom industry, including global biggies such as Elon Musk's Starlink and Jeff Bezos' Amazon, stand sharply divided on a futuristic technology that promises to revolutionise India's telecom sector — the satellite communication (satcom). Companies such as Reliance Jio’s JV with Luxembourg-based SES, Starlink, Amazon, Bharti-backed OneWeb and the Tata-Telesat combine are working on creating a constellation of satellites to deliver ‘broadband-from-space’ services in India. The satcom market in India is at a nascent stage but the potential is huge, particularly in rural and remote areas.
A key consultation paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), seeking views on the mode of allotment of satellite spectrum, has led to a flurry of submissions and counter-submissions by companies on either side of the divide.
An open-house discussion conducted by Trai on allocation mechanism for satellite spectrum on July 14 lasted for more than 10 hours, with some 30 speakers from across the world pressing their views. While Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea are for auction of satellite spectrum, all others, including Starlink and Bharti's OneWeb, are against auction and press for administrative allocation.
Competition for satellite spectrum is fierce than for terrestrial, as there are only three private telecom players in the country, but the number is much higher for satcom.
Why allocation?
Starlink, Amazon, OneWeb and Canada’s Telesat have told Trai that auctioning satellite airwaves would make the business of satellite communications unviable. They contend that auctions would make broadband from space services unaffordable and deprive consumers, particularly in rural and underserved regions, of high-speed broadband connectivity.
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