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The long - running debate over how artificial satellite spectrum would be allocate in India appeared to reach an important milestone on Tuesday : India announced it would apportion spectrum for satellite service through administrative means — essentially setting a monetary value that is collectable first - come , first - served — rather than auction .
Jyotiraditya Scindia , India ’s Communications Minister , stated on Tuesday even : “ Spectrum for satcomm is share spectrum , and can not be auctioneer . The administrative allocation of satellite spectrum is practiced worldwide . ”
The topic is pregnant not just because it helps settle how to divvy up significant , finite , spectrum for new communicating service , but because it will likely signal the entry of Elon Musk and his Starlink satellite service into India ’s remunerative telecom market . Amazon ’s Project Kuiper — which is alsolooking to enter India ’s broadband grocery — is another new player that has advocated for shared spectrum allotment .
On the other side of the debate , Indian telcos arguably have been trying to restrict his ambitious plans by endorse the musical theme of an auction . One of the more big voices has been Reliance Jio , led by India ’s richest man Mukesh Ambani , which has pushed for auctions to secure a “ level playing field ” .
Sunil Mittal , conscientious objector - chair of Eutelsat and chairperson of Bharti Airtel , has been another vocal advocate of the auction bridge path . in the beginning on Tuesday , he argued that satellite companies serve urban area should “ take the telecommunication licenses like everybody else ” and buy spectrum accordingly .
Musk had warned on Monday that constitute satellite spectrum auction sale “ would be unprecedented “ , summon long - stand ITU designation of share artificial satellite spectrum .
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India is the world ’s most thickly settled land with over 1.4 billion people , but it still has a tenacious elbow room to go in terms of closing up its digital water parting . There are currently950 million net user , think of 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 nomadic service , it ’s also been image as a strong rival for expanding connectivity in areas where there is no infrastructure in place today , or used as a backhaul route to unfold the capacity of planetary mobile net .
Historically , Jio and Airtel have led the telecommunication sector in India by offering their connection across a grasp of connection frequencies . The duo has also been exploring satellite broadband for some month to take on global players like Starlink and Amazon .
Jio , India ’s biggest telco wheeler dealer , partnered with the Luxembourg - base artificial satellite communications service supplier SES for itsjoint venturein 2022 . The venture , named Orbit Connect , received rights and food market access code authorizations from the space manufacture regulator , IN - SPACe , earlier this class . The hustler also showcased its satellite broadband service of process called JioSpaceFiber last twelvemonth , which it said would volunteer gamy - speed net access across the country“at highly low-priced prices . ”
Like Jio , Airtel has OneWeb India , a local subsidiary of low - earth orbit operator Eutelsat OneWeb , to look into its ambitious programme to volunteer satellite broadband table service in the South Asian nation . This venture alsoreceived the necessary approvalto launch its commercial-grade satellite broadband services .
Jio and Airtel demand spectrum auction bridge instead of administrative allocation as the operators tell the latter could give more blank space to newer players and would be less favorable for the existing contenders . However , the Indian government has continued to prefer administrative allocation for planet spectrum .
“ planet spectrum across the earthly concern is allocated administratively . So , India is not doing anything different from the rest of the mankind . Conversely , if you do decide to auction it , then you will be doing something which is different from the rest of the mankind , ” Scindia said .
