Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said spectrum for satellite communications will be allotted administratively in line with the global practices and not through auction.
He added that the Telecom Act of 2023 passed in December has put the matter in ‘Schedule 1’, which means that the satcomm spectrum will be allocated administratively.
“That does not mean that spectrum does not come without a cost. What that cost is and what the formula of that cost is going to be, will not be decided by you or me …it will be decided by Trai…and there is a paper that has already been circulated by Trai, and we have a regulatory authority for telecom, and that regulatory authority of telecom has been empowered by the constitution to decide what that administrative pricing is going to be,” he said.
The minister said he is very confident that Trai will come up with the best pricing that should be adopted, provided that it is being given in an administrative manner.
“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 would be doing something, which is different from the rest of the world,” the minister said.
Pointing out that satellite spectrum is a shared airwaves, Scindia said, “If the spectrum is shared then how can you price it individually”.
The minister’s comments came after Bharti Airtel’s Sunit Bharti Mittal and Reliance Jio advocated for auctioning satellite spectrum in connected areas.
Starlink CEO Elon Musk, whose networth is $241 billion, has spoken directly against demands for a level playing field made by the Indian firms.
Musk’s Starlink and global peers like Amazon’s Project Kuiper back an administrative allocation.
(With PTI Inputs)
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