New Delhi: The issue of whether spectrum for satellite services in India would be allocated or auctioned resurfaced this week, bringing competing industry players Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel together on one side, in contrast with global satellite communication players, like Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, who favour administrative allocation.
The government Tuesday confirmed its intention to allocate the spectrum administratively.
Satellite spectrum refers to radio frequencies used for satellite communications and a UN agency, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), oversees the global allocation of these frequencies. Satellite-based communication systems (satcoms) are especially beneficial for providing coverage to the remotest and most inaccessible areas.
ThePrint takes a look at what the issue was and the government’s decision to allocate the spectrum administratively.
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Crux of the disagreement
The debate over spectrum allocation flared up again Monday after reports surfaced suggesting that billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio had written to Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia arguing that telecom regulator TRAI incorrectly concluded that home satellite broadband spectrum should be allocated and not auctioned.
“TRAI seems to have concluded, without any basis, that spectrum assignment should be administrative,” wrote Reliance senior regulatory affairs official Kapoor Singh Guliani.
Responding to a post on X about Reliance Jio’s demand, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose satellite communications company owns Starlink, said such a move would be “unprecedented”.
“That would be unprecedented, as this spectrum was long designated by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) as shared spectrum for satellites,” Musk wrote.
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That would be unprecedented, as this spectrum was long designated by the ITU as shared spectrum for satellites.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2024
But Reliance Jio’s stance was backed by chairman of rival telco Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal.
During the inaugural session of the Indian Mobile Congress Tuesday, Mittal said all satellite companies that are ambitious about providing their services in urban areas with elite retail customers need to obtain telecommunication licences like all other telcos and abide by the same conditions. “They need to buy the spectrum just as telecom companies buy. They need to pay the licence fees and also secure their networks like telecom companies do,” he said at the session attended by PM Modi and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) secretary-general Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
Did Airtel change its tune?
Interestingly, in a response to an earlier TRAI consultation paper on the ‘Assignment of Spectrum for Space-based Communication Services’, released last year before the passage of the Telecommunication Act, 2023, Bharti Airtel, along with Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper Systems, had pitched for administrative assignment of satellite communication.
In its submission, Bharti Airtel said, “It is Airtel’s firm belief that auctioning the satellite spectrum is neither reasonable nor just or fair” as it is a shared resource and globally is assigned on an administrative basis.
This was in contrast to submissions by two other private operators, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, who favoured allocation through auction.
In the 2023 submission to TRAI, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio had pitched for the auction of satellite airwaves “to ensure a level playing field”.
Jio emphasised that it is crucial to ensure that spectrum assignment rules for networks offering competing services are uniform and fair, without granting any stakeholder preferential treatment solely based on network topology or architecture.
Mittal’s statements Tuesday, therefore, was seen as a departure from an earlier stand.
However, in a statement issued later Tuesday, the telecom operator said, “There is no question of Airtel having moved its stance.” It added that Airtel has always maintained that it will use all technologies including satcom to ensure that the entire country is covered for high-speed broadband connectivity. Airtel remains consistent on this position.
“Satellite operators who want to provide services to urban areas and retail customers indeed need to go through the regular licensing process of any country, and in this case, India, to obtain a licence; buy the spectrum; undertake all the obligations, including rollout and security; pay their licence fees and taxes and they would be welcomed by the telecom fraternity,” it added.
Govt’s stance on spectrum allocation
On Tuesday, Scindia reiterated that the spectrum for satellite communication services will not be auctioned, but allocated administratively as mentioned in the Telecommunications Act of 2023, passed in December last year. This method was followed worldwide, he said.
“If the spectrum is shared, then how can you price it individually,” Scindia further asked by way of an explanation of the reasoning behind the government’s stance.
He, however, added that the spectrum would not come without a cost and that the sectoral regulator TRAI would work out the pricing model.
This was welcomed by Musk, who claimed Starlink “will do our best to serve the people of India”. There were unconfirmed reports that Starlink had received in-principle approval from the Indian government for a satellite communications license.
Much appreciated! We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2024
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had in September this year issued a consultation paper titled ‘Terms and Conditions for the Assignment of Spectrum for Certain Satellite-Based Commercial Communication Services’ that sought industry inputs on how to price spectrum for satcom services through the administrative route.
Under this route, the government allocates spectrum to qualified companies, whereas in an auction model, companies make bids for spectrum above the reserve price set by the government.
Stakeholders in favour of administrative allocation have argued that the satellite spectrum differs from the terrestrial spectrum and is a shared resource.
This means that, on the satellite spectrum, the same frequencies can be reused at the same geographic locations by multiple satellite networks. The spectrum cannot be broken down into exclusive blocks or chunks as is the case with terrestrial spectrum. Hence, auctioning satellite spectrum is technically impractical and difficult to implement.
Globally, satellite spectrums are generally assigned through an administrative mechanism and spectrum charges are levied in the form of an administratively-determined fee.
Some countries, like Brazil, Mexico, the US, and Saudi Arabia, have tried to implement the auction-based model for spectrum allocation for space-based communications.
However, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States discontinued the auction system and reverted to administrative assignment because they found it unfeasible.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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