India will see fastest satcom rollout, says Jyotiraditya Scindia

Minister says India's satcom market will grow from $2.3 billion to $20 billion by 2028 as Starlink awaits final clearance and QoS becomes key focus for telcos

India will see the fastest global rollout so far for satellite communication, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday. This would expand the satcom market in India to $20 billion by 2028, ten times larger than the current $2.3 billion, he said.

 

Addressing a seminar at the headquarters of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Scindia said satellite telecom technology is complementary to the existing bouquet of services. The minister's comments came on a day when Elon Musk's Starlink announced the launch of telecom services in neighbouring Bangladesh.

 

While the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has cleared Starlink's application for satellite communication services in India, the company still needs to secure IN-SPACe clearance in record time if it wants to roll out signals alongside others, industry insiders say. Its competitor Airtel-backed Eutelsat OneWeb received a GMPCS licence effective from August 2021, while Jio Satellite Communication Ltd has held it since March 2022.

   

The minister said the DoT is studying the recommendations made on the allocation of space spectrum, which were released earlier this month. These mandate that operators pay 4 per cent of their annual Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) as spectrum usage charges (SUC) to offer services in India. The spectrum is to be assigned for five years, extendable by an additional two years. These and other key recommendations are expected to be presented to the Cabinet for approval soon, TRAI officials have said. 

 

A KPMG report has pointed out that India ranks fourth globally in terms of investments in the sector. Nearly $2 billion was invested in 110 firms locally, it said last year.

 

Instead, Scindia asked telecom operators to focus on quality of service (QoS). “It’s important to make sure we have the largest or second-largest market in the world, but it also must be defined on the parameter of highest QoS. It is my sincere hope that all our telco providers will move up the value chain of QoS, not up to international benchmarks but beyond that,” he said.

 

The 5G rollout in India has been the fastest in the world, covering 99 per cent of districts and 82 per cent of the population in 22 months, Scindia stressed.

 

Arguing that the DoT has focused on performance, transparency and accountability, the minister said the Sanchar Sathi mobile app has resulted in 3.4 crore fake mobile connections being disconnected, and 30 lakh phones being blocked in the last 11 months. Meanwhile, it has ensured that 17 lakh stolen phones have been recovered, a 97 per cent reduction in international spoofed calls has been achieved, and an AI-enabled telecom monitoring system has given confidence to users.