Will consider all stakeholders views on satellite spectrum: Trai chief

Regulator indicates consultation paper on satellite communication won't be retracted

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will consider all stakeholder comments on satellite spectrum but is not looking to retract the existing consultation paper issued by it last month, chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said on Wednesday.

Lahoti was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing India Mobile Congress (IMC) here a day after the debate on whether satellite spectrum should be auctioned was rekindled.

“We are receiving multiple views, suggestions and inputs as part of the consultation process. It is common for Trai to receive these, and then take a considered view. Whatever views Trai takes comes out in the public domain,” he stressed.

On Tuesday, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said the government should ensure all satellite communication providers abide by the same legal conditions that traditional telecom operators are subject to. These include paying licence fees, and buying spectrum.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio has urged Trai to come up with a revised paper on spectrum allocation for satellite communication. It alleged that the paper ignores the key point of ensuring level-playing field between satellite and terrestrial services.

Mittal’s latest comments initially triggered a debate on whether he was suggesting satellite spectrum should be auctioned by the government, similar to terrestrial spectrum. Till then, the auction of satellite spectrum has been championed by Reliance Jio but opposed by Bharti Airtel.

In a statement on Tuesday, Airtel had said the company remains consistent in its position that satellite spectrum should be allocated.

“Airtel has always maintained that it will use all technologies, including Sitcom, to ensure that every nook and corner of the country is covered for high-speed broadband connectivity. This position remains consistent. Even six months back, Airtel had written a letter to the department of technology,” Airtel said.

In that letter, Airtel had supported the government's move to include satcom in the ambit of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, while assigning spectrum for satcom on an administrative basis.

Stakeholders double down

Mittal argued that the government should ensure a level-playing field between traditional telcos and satellite communication providers. He added that satellite companies which have ambitions to come into urban areas serving “elite, retail customers” need to take the telecom licence just like everybody else.

On the same day, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified the Telecom Act clearly states that satellite spectrum would be allocated administratively, but at a cost.

Meanwhile, industry body Indian Space Association (ISpA) which acts as a ‘single-window’ agency for facilitating space sector business opportunities for Indian startups and the private sector, believes the debate is over even before it began.

“We welcome the minister's unequivocal and clear statement on the allocation of spectrum for satcom. The satellite industry is now only awaiting the final allocation of spectrum for space at the earliest,” ISpA director general AK Bhatt said on Wednesday.