Satcom companies and telcos will be fighting for a share of the wireless broadband market in India, which is poised for strong growth. The firms have submitted their recommendations to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which will now come out with recommendations on the pricing and other modalities concerning the spectrum.
Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, though, have sought reissuance or a supplementary consultation paper as the current paper does not cover key issues, including the level playing field.
“SpaceX and Starlink India submit that the charges for accessing shared spectrum focus on administrative cost recovery and be set at less than 1% of AGR (adjusted gross revenue),” Elon Musk-owned Starlink said in its submission. Amazon and Globalstar echoed the same stance.The telcos, on the other hand, said the satellite spectrum should be priced in a manner that addresses their concerns over a level playing field since both telcos and satcom companies would be offering similar services and some satellite operators may offer services directly to customers in urban areas.
Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, too, has sided with telcos regarding the level playing field. The telcos said in case of administrative allocation for particular use cases, the validity should be between 2 and 5 years, but for a 20-year tenure, market-determined prices must be paid by satcom firms. “In any case, the immediate need in India is connecting the hitherto unconnected areas, and a validity of 3-5 years is adequate to encourage satcom for this purpose,” Bharti Airtel said in its submission.
The telcos highlighted that in the coming few years, both satellite and terrestrial networks will converge and the same spectrum can be used for both.
