Government Firm On Administrative Allocations For Satellite Spectrum, Says Scindia

Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia categorically rejected on Tuesday the idea of holding auctions for spectrum in the satellite communication space and said that it would be allocated administratively.

Scindia was speaking at the eight edition of the India Mobile Congress, which is being held in New Delhi from Oct 15–18. Rejecting the demand of major telcos, such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Reliance Jio, Scindia said that satcom spectrum is allocated administratively all over the world.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of IMC2024, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairperson of the Bharti Group, suggested that satellite companies that 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, Mittal said.

Recently, Reliance Jio had also backed the idea of holding auctions for satellite spectrum allocations. In its letter to Scindia, Reliance Jio stated that satellite communication companies, including Elon Musk's Starlink, Amazon's Kupier, Bharti Group-backed OneWeb Eutelsat, and the SES-Jio JV, have expressed interest in providing their services in India. These companies will directly compete with land-based mobile networks, and therefore, a fair and transparent auction system for satellite services is essential to ensure level competition, the letter said.