The long-running debate over how satellite spectrum would be allocated in India appeared to reach an important milestone on Tuesday: India announced it would allocate spectrum for satellite services through administrative means — essentially setting a price that is payable first-come, first-served — rather than auction.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, India’s Communications Minister, stated on Tuesday evening: “Spectrum for satcomm is shared spectrum, and cannot be auctioned. The administrative allocation of satellite spectrum is practiced worldwide.”
The issue is significant not just because it helps decide how to divvy up important, finite, spectrum for new communications services, but because it will likely signal the entry of Elon Musk and his Starlink satellite services into India’s lucrative telecom market. Amazon’s Project Kuiper — which is also looking to enter India’s broadband market — is another new player that has advocated for shared spectrum allocation.
On the other side of the debate, Indian telcos arguably have been trying to restrict his ambitious plans by supporting the idea of an auction. One of the more prominent voices has been Reliance Jio, led by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, which has pushed for auctions to ensure a “level playing field”.
Sunil Mittal, co-chair of Eutelsat and chair of Bharti Airtel, has been another vocal advocate of the auction route. Earlier on Tuesday, he argued that satellite companies serving urban areas should “take the telecom licenses like everybody else” and buy spectrum accordingly.
“Therefore, mobile operators and satcom operators, who have worked in harmony for decades, can continue to do so to serve those who are still struggling to find internet connectivity,” Airtel said in a statement released following Mittal’s comments.
Musk had warned on Monday that instituting satellite spectrum auctions “would be unprecedented“, citing long-standing ITU designations of shared satellite spectrum.
India is the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people, but it still has a long way to go in terms of closing up its digital divide. There are currently 950 million internet users, meaning that a full 490 million – more than one-third of the population – are still unconnected. This highlights the need to explore new avenues. Although satellite broadband is generally a more expensive option for mobile services, it’s also been seen as a strong contender for expanding connectivity in areas where there is no infrastructure in place today, or used as a backhaul route to extend the capacity of terrestrial mobile networks.
Historically, Jio and Airtel have led the telecom sector in India by offering their network across a range of network frequencies. The duo has also been exploring satellite broadband for some months to take on global players like Starlink and Amazon.
Jio, India’s biggest telco operator, partnered with the Luxembourg-based satellite communications service provider SES for its joint venture in 2022. The venture, named Orbit Connect, received rights and market access authorizations from the space industry regulator, IN-SPACe, earlier this year. The operator also showcased its satellite broadband service called JioSpaceFiber last year, which it said would offer high-speed internet access across the country “at highly affordable prices.”
Like Jio, Airtel has OneWeb India, a local subsidiary of low-earth orbit operator Eutelsat OneWeb, to look into its ambitious plans to offer satellite broadband services in the South Asian nation. This venture also received the necessary approval to launch its commercial satellite broadband services.
Jio and Airtel demand spectrum auctions instead of administrative allocation as the operators stated the latter could give more space to newer players and would be less favorable for the existing contenders. However, the Indian government has continued to prefer administrative allocation for satellite spectrum.
The country’s telecom law passed by the Indian government last year allows administrative allocation as an exception for satellite communication spectrum. Last month, the Indian regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, also floated a consultation paper (PDF) exploring the methodology and price for assigning spectrum to satellite companies.
“Satellite spectrum across the world is allocated administratively. So, India is not doing anything different from the rest of the world. Conversely, if you do decide to auction it, then you will be doing something which is different from the rest of the world,” Scindia said.