According to the reports, the central government wants to allocate satellite communication airwaves without an auction. Although Starlink and Amazon have supported this stance, India’s top telecom companies including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are against this approach. Reports suggest it will not be easy for the government to convince Jio and Airtel. A day after Trump’s victory, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia reiterated that satellite airwaves would not be auctioned but allocated administratively. However, the cost will be determined by the telecom regulator.
As per the news report, the Akash Ambani-led Reliance Jio has also suggested for satellite companies to pay license fee and buy spectrum for their telecom services just like legacy telecom companies do. Telecom regulator TRAI has recommended that satellite broadband to potential SATCOM companies be allocated through administrative measures and not auctioned.
Recently, the world’s richest person Elon Musk Elon Musk thanked Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for not agreeing with Indian tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal on auctioning spectrum for satellite services, saying he is looking forward to serving Indians. Sharing a post on X(previously Twitter), the Tech billionaire wrote, “Much appreciated! We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink.”
