Satcom Players Urge DoT To Expedite Spectrum Allotment : Report

Satcom Players Urges DoT To Expedite Spectrum Allotment : Report

SUMMARY

The Indian Space Association (ISpA) and the Broadband India Forum (BIF) wrote letters to DoT

Both the authorities suggested DoT to speed up the provisional allotment of satellite spectrum to avoid wastage of resources

Furthermore, they suggested that satcom players with licenses should be charged under spectrum policy from the date of provisional allotment for commercial use

The Indian Space Association (ISpA) and the Broadband India Forum (BIF) have reportedly urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to speed up the provisional allotment of satellite spectrum to avoid wastage of resources.

An ET report said that both the authorities wrote to DoT secretary Neeraj Mittal, suggesting that the satcom players with licenses should be charged under India’s final satcom spectrum policy from the date of provisional allotment for commercial use.

It is pertinent to note that DoT has only given the GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) licence to Mukesh Ambani’s Jio SES and Sunil Mittal’s Eutelsat OneWeb.

The letters further highlighted that the delay in spectrum allotment is resulting in wastage of satellite resources, which have limited life space of 5-7 years. Additionally, this wastage is causing financial loss to the companies.

“Despite having the requisite licences and authorisations for provisioning of foreign satellite capacity in India, as well as the constellations and ground infrastructure in place, some non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite operators are still unable to launch commercial services in India due to lack of frequency assignment,” ISpA said in the letter sent on April 16.

Notably, Eutelsat OneWeb is also a part of ISpA. Additionally, Jio SES and Eutelsat OneWeb are the only NGSOs with authorisations and licence to offer commercial satellite internet services in India. As per ISpA, allowing NGSOs to offer commercial services would put their satcom infrastructure to use.

On the other hand, BIF in its letter dated April 21 said, “We request the government to consider extending the scope of these provisional spectrum assignments to permit such operators to offer commercial services till regular assignments are done.”

The government is awaiting the final recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to finalise the pricing and policy of spectrum allocation. Last month, a report suggested that TRAI is mulling to recommend allotment of satellite broadband spectrum for five years to assess initial market adoption.

Yesterday, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia urged global satcom operators to participate in the Indian market. Furthermore, he anticipated that India will have multiple players in the satellite business in the near future.

Global Satcom Players In India’s Licence Race

With India’s decision to allot spectrum satellite administratively with a cost, many global satcom players are in the queue to obtain licence to offer satellite services in the country.

While Starlink’s license application is in the final stages of regulator approval, other giants including Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Apple’s partner Globalstar are also putting efforts to obtain satcom licenses.

Not just this, homegrown telecom giants, including Bharti Airtel and Jio Infocomm inked an agreement with Starlink to offer their satellite-based internet services to its customers in India. However, the agreement depends on whether Starlink receives approval to offer services in the country.

Besides, Vodafone Idea is also in talks to partner with Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper.