The Indian government has decided to allocate spectrum for satellite services through administrative means — essentially setting a price that is payable first-come, first-served — rather than auction. This favours two US multinationals – Elon [look at me] Musk’s Starlink and Amazon over local telcos.
India’s Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said: “Spectrum for satcomm is shared spectrum and cannot be auctioned. The administrative allocation of satellite spectrum is practised worldwide.”
However, the move favours Google and Starlink. It will 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.
This caused more problems for India’s telecoms industry, which could be shut out of its markets by the American colonialists. Its telcos have been trying to restrict Musk’s 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. 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.
India is the world’s most populous country, with over 1.4 billion people, but 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 with no infrastructure today or used as a backhaul route to extend the capacity of terrestrial mobile networks.
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 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 decide to auction it, then you will be doing something different from the rest of the world,” Scindia said.
Equally, you could argue that India is a different country from the rest of the world and has different challenges and problems which will not be resolved by giving resources to a first-world country because it did not go very well the last time you did that.
