Licensing Norms Of Satellite Earth Station Gateways Cause Rift Among Satcom Providers

The licensing norms for satellite earth station gateways (SESG) are creating serious disagreements among service providers.

As per ET, while Amazon’s Kuiper, Canada’s Telesat and Tata’s Nelco have supported a separate authorisation regime for SESG, Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Apple partner Globalstar have said that it does not require any separate licensing.

SESGs are ground stations that facilitate data transmission between local networks.

Globalstar has argued that the current GMPCS (global mobile personal communication by satellite) licence mandates authorised entities to establish gateway stations, and therefore, any new SESG-specific authorisation should not negatively affect the operations of GMPCS license holders, the report said.

It is pertinent to note that SESG operators do not need spectrum allocation but focus on spectrum configuration to facilitate smooth signal exchange. 

They set up SESG to offer network-as-a-service, rather than providing direct connectivity to retail consumers. These gateways, also referred to as teleports or hubs, function as ground stations that transmit data between satellites and local area networks.

Under the current framework, entities looking to establish SESGs and acquire satellite spectrum to provide bandwidth to terrestrial telecom operators, rather than offering direct-to-consumer services, are required to obtain a universal licence.

In October, TRAI released a consultation paper seeking feedback on the terms and conditions for network authorisation for various services, including earth station gateways. 

In the paper, the regulator noted that in 2022, it had recommended to the department of telecommunications (DoT) that the government create a separate license for SESG services.

TRAI proposed that holders of this license should be allowed to offer gateway station services to any entity authorised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or the DoT to provide satellite communication services. However, SESG license holders should not be permitted to offer telecom services directly to consumers. The proposed SESG licence would be valid for 20 years, with an option to renew for an additional 10 years.

Despite these recommendations, the government did not adopt them. As a result, with the new Telecommunication Act, 2023 now in place, TRAI believes it is necessary to seek fresh inputs from stakeholders on whether any revisions to the previous recommendations are required.