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.

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