New Delhi, May 9 (PTI) Telecom Regulator TRAI issued its recommendations on the pricing of spectrum for satellite-based internet services on Friday, suggesting 4 percent of annual revenue as a fee on operators such as Elon Musk’s Starlinks.
Offerrs offering services in urban areas will have to perform an additional Rs 500 per subscriber annually, TRAI asked the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) in their recommendations.
No additional levy will apply for services in rural areas.
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended that the satellite broadband spectrum be allocated for five years, which could be extended for one and two years.
4 percent of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) spectrum charge will be for both the geographical class (GSO) and the NGSO (Non-Gosystonation Orbit) operators. These will be subject to a minimum annual spectrum charge of Rs 3,500 per MHz.
Issuing the recommendations, TRAI President Anil Kumar Lahoti said that once available SATCOM services can play an important role in taking connectivity in areas where telecom networks are not available. They also play an important role in disasters, rescue and relief operations.
Earlier this week, Starlink received the Intent of Intent (Loi) for the introduction of its services. Now it has to buy a license before starting services in India.
Elon Musk -led aerospace company SpaceX has already tied up Starlink’s broadband internet services in India with rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Atel.
Both Indian firms will provide starlink equipment through their network and also support customer installation and activation on equipment.
In the last few months, rivals Jio and Airtel came together to demand an auction to reward spectrum for satellite services in India. Musk, on the other hand, advocated administrative allocation as per the international criteria.
In October last year, the government biased with musk on the issue of allotment of airways, which was used to offer less delays internet services using satellites at pre-determined value through administrative passage.
Jio, India’s largest wireless carrier, and Airtel, any 2 players in the world’s most dangerous nation, where the use of data is increasing rapidly, the least entry cost will remove some of their customer base.
Based on the recommendations of TRAI, the DOT will now go to the cabinet for pricing satellite spectrum and can approve any Satcom once you want to offer services in India.
Starlink is the world’s largest low Earth-Orbit (Leo) planetarium operated by Spacex.
Bharti is already a partner with YouTelst Vanaweb, the second largest Leo Nakshatra.
Similarly, Jio platforms have a joint venture with SES, a major global satellite-based material connectivity solutions provider.
Jio Space Technology Ltd, where Jio has 51 PR Cent and SES 49 percent, is to use multi-arbit space network that is a combination of geostationary (geo) and medium mean or orbit costals, which is a combination link of India and neighboring as well as innovations to India and neighboring. And is capable of providing capacity.
Eultsat Onweeb, in which Airtel is the single largest shareholder with 21.2 percent shares, and Jio’s joint venture with SES has already received GMPCS license and in-space approval.
Starlink currently operates over 6,000 Leo satellites, while Amazon’s Kuper project plans to deploy 3,236 satellites starting in early 2025. Pti mbi anz drr
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