Airtel's Sunil Mittal Bats For Satellite Firms Coughing Up Money For Spectrum

Bharti Airtel Ltd. Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Tuesday batted for a level playing field for satellite firms and telecom operators, pitching for the government to levy fees from the former for spectrum.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress, Mittal drew PM Modi's attention to the matter. "There is a debate across the world, which is where I'd like to draw the attention of the Prime Minister. Inter temporal choices will have to be made as to how satellites, which are fast moving technologies, need to exist with terrestrial networks," he said.

Mittal said existing telecom companies can take satellite services into the remotest part of the nation. "However, satellite companies who have ambitions to come to urban areas, serving elite, retail customers, just need to take the telecom licences like everybody else. They should be bound with the same conditions, they need to buy the spectrum as telecom companies buy. They need to pay the licence fee as telcos do and secure networks like telcos do. This is a simple solution which can be done and India can show the way," he said.

Even six months back, Airtel had written a letter to DoT, stating that satellite communications are important for rural coverage.

"As a pan-India terrestrial network operator, we understand the techno-commercial challenges that networks face in connecting the unconnected/rural/remote areas or maritime and aviation as well as in situations of disaster management. This is where we acknowledge the potential of satellite communication (SATCOM) complementing the terrestrial networks—in bridging this digital inclusion gap," according to a letter written to DoT in March that was viewed by NDTV Profit.

Eutelsat OneWeb, in joint venture with Airtel, has already set up two ground stations, one in Gujarat and the other in Tamil Nadu, to secure all communications arising out of India on the Satcom network as it awaits the green light to commercially provide such services.

Global satellite firms like Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper have also been eyeing India as a potential market, with current regulations allowing administrative allocation, and not auctions, like telecom operators have to undergo.