My goal is to ensure every dark spot in India is lit up by satcom: Scindia

At a time when satellite broadband is at the centre of policy-making in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), connecting the unconnected areas in the country has emerged as the goalpost for the government. This is against the backdrop of some private players indicating they could offer satellite communication (satcom) services in cities as well, at competing tariffs. 

 

In an interaction with Business Standard in his office on Tuesday, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said he would like to ensure that unconnected areas in the country, or dark-spots, are covered by satcom. He was emphatic that the policy on satellite communications would be formulated after adequate due diligence.

 

Scindia was replying to a question on the government stand on spectrum charges that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) should pay for its global satellite phone service (GSPS).

 

Currently, the ministry is evaluating the response from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on a back-reference by the DoT where the regulator has reiterated its recomm¬endations that spectrum charges for geo-stationary orbit and non-geostationary orbit satellites be kept at 4 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for all players. The regulator has said that keeping the charge at 1 per cent for the global satellite phone service offered by BSNL for strategic purposes, as proposed by DoT in the back-reference, would be unfair and discriminatory, since the scenario had changed with the entry of mobile satellite service providers.

 

“As far as AGR and the rules of the playing field are concerned, it’s too early for me to comment on that … a final decision will be taken on that…. But my ultimate goal is to make sure that the dark spots that are left in my country are lit up by satcom. So whatever policy that comes up must ensure at the end of the day that those dark spots are lit up on priority,” Scindia told this newspaper.

 

As of October 31, the Trai subscription report showed India’s teledensity at 86.76 per cent. Teledensity — a key metric for telecom penetration in an area —  denotes the number of telephone connections (wireless and wireline) per 100 people. The teledensity split presents a complete picture—while the wireless teledensity is at 83.47 per cent, wireline is at 3.29 per cent. Also, while urban teledensity of India is at 134.66 per cent, rural teledensity is at 59.72 per cent.

 

Both, the rural teledensity as well as the wireline teledensity numbers capture the gaps or the dark spots in communication that Scindia’s referring to.          

 

The minister added that the government is ‘’cogitating over it’’ and the back-and-forth with the regulator - referring to the reference back from DoT to Trai and the regulator’s response to the reference - was crucial. “There must be a fair degree of due diligence that's done before a policy is brought out, because you can’t keep changing it. It must be robust, clear and must be able to achieve its objectives,” he noted.

 

While the recommendations on spectrum assignment for satellite-based commercial communication services have been submitted by Trai, the government will take a final call on the charges that companies offering satellite communication services will have to pay for using the airwaves.

 

As things stand, SpaceX’s satcom service provider Starlink, Bharti group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satellite service venture Jio-SES have been given regulatory approvals and are awaiting spectrum allocation to begin commercial services.