No spectrum auction for satellite broadband; Jyotiraditya Scindia said TRAI will decide the price

Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that instead of auctioning the spectrum for satellite broadband, it will be allocated. Indian billionaire industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal are demanding to auction it, while Elon Musk's company Starlink has advocated its allocation. In an interview, Jyotiraditya Scindia said that satellite broadband will not be given for free and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will fix the price for it.

Jyotiraditya Scindia said, 'Every country has to follow the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is the organization that sets policy for spectrum in space or satellites. The ITU has been very clear about giving spectrum on the basis of 'assignment'. Moreover, if you look around the world today, I do not see a single country that auctions spectrum for satellite.'

India is a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for digital technology. Global competitors like Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper, however, have supported administrative allocation.

While Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio is seeking such spectrum allocation via auction routes to provide a level playing field to old operators that buy spectrum, Sunil Mittal, on the contrary, had stressed the need for bidding for such allocation at an industry function last month in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even before this, he has clarified his stand on this matter to the government several times.

Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the Telecom Act 2023 passed in December has put this matter in 'Schedule 1', which means that the allocation of Satcom spectrum will be done administratively. Such allocation will be at a price fixed by the government and will allow foreign companies like Starlink to provide voice and data services.

If the satellite spectrum is auctioned, it will be costlier for Starlink and other companies to start their services in India. Starlink has applied for a licence to start its operations in the country. But Jyotiraditya Scindia did not give any information about this application.