look news india
Indian billionaire industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal are reportedly looking to auction spectrum for satellite broadband, but Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday clarified that spectrum for satellite broadband will not be auctioned but allocated. Elon Musk's company Starlink has also advocated for its allocation. The Union Minister has said that satellite broadband spectrum will not be given free and its price will be decided by the Telecom Regulator (TRAI).
Must comply with ITU
According to the news, the Union Minister said that every country will have to comply with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is the body that sets the policy for spectrum in space or satellites. ITU is very clear on the issue of spectrum being given on assignment basis. “If you look around the world today, I don't see a single country auctioning spectrum for satellites,” he said. Let us tell you that India is a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) of the United Nations Agency for Digital Technology.
Starlink and Project Kuiper are supporting the allocation
Global competitors such as Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper have supported administrative allocations. Ambani's Reliance Jio is pushing for allocation of such spectrum through auction to provide a level playing field to legacy operators who buy spectrum and set up infrastructure like telecom towers. At the same time, Mittal had stressed the need for bidding for such allocation at an industry function in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. Jio and Mittal's Bharti Airtel are India's first and second largest telecom companies.
An environment of unequal competition will be created!
Jio and Airtel believe that the allocation of satellite broadband spectrum at a pre-determined price by the government will create an uneven competitive environment as they will have to compete in auctions to get spectrum for their terrestrial 'wireless phone networks'. The two companies are also competing for share in the satellite broadband sector. Musk-led Starlink is seeking administrative allocation of licenses as it looks to enter the world's fastest-growing mobile telephony and internet markets, according to Global Trends.