Ahead of the govt decision over American Starlink’s satcom license and mobile airwaves allotment, Reliance Jio and Airtel have petitioned the government to ensure “fair competition” in the sector and mandate “comparable” spectrum prices for the Elon Musk-run company in order to tackle “market distortions”.
The representation by the Indian telecom giants, accuses regulator TRAI of “overlooking the need for a level-playing field” between satellite and terrestrial spectrum assignments.
“Comparable spectrum pricing to terrestrial services should be enforced for competing satellite services in urban/semi-urban/rural areas for retail/enterprise customers,” the petition by the local telcos says. “The ‘same service, same rules’ principle is essential for fair competition, requiring satellite operators offering similar services to adhere to the same spectrum pricing, regulatory levies, and fees as terrestrial operators.”
While the new telecom law, passed in December 2023, had stipulated that spectrum to satcom players be allotted administratively on payment of a fee (against auctions for terrestrial makers), the allotment prices and other modalities are currently being worked upon by TRAI.
“Spectrum allotment rules must address the competing nature and market distortions introduced by LEO (low-earth orbit) mega constellations to ensure level-playing field with existing satellite and terrestrial operators,” the representation said.
However, the telcos said that administrative assignments of spectrum with “nominal pricing” should apply for “non-competing use cases” in govt functions, disaster recovery, cellular backhaul, and sectors like defence, maritime, and aviation.
The local operators, who have already received satcom license from govt but await spectrum allotment, claimed that the low-earth satellite solutions are developing mega constellations that can offer broadband speeds and capacity comparable to terrestrial networks.
“Given the oversupply of broadband capacity that these entities are bringing to market, they will distort competition of terrestrial broadband, especially in urban/semi-urban areas serving retail/enterprise customers.”
The companies said that globally the business model of LEO mega-constellations has been to create “oversupply” of broadband capacity.
However, despite demands by telcos, Govt has been steadfast in its decision to allot satcom spectrum administratively, without auctions. Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has maintained that satcom spectrum cannot be auctioned due to technological constraints.
“Please understand that technologically there’s a big difference between spectrum that is meant for terrestrial networks and spectrum that’s allocated to satellite-based, non-terrestrial networks. As far as terrestrial networks are concerned, you can allocate frequencies exclusively which can’t be used by others… that spectrum cannot be allocated to a single entity. It is shared. How do you auction something that’s shared? You can’t,” he has said.
Musk’s application for satcom license is still pending with govt over issues of security clearances. Teams representing the company have been clarifying their stand to the DoT and the Ministry of Home Affairs as the application enters the final leg of the approval process, sources say. ToI