 "Reliance Jio sends legal opinion backing satcom spectrum auction to Trai")
Reliance Jio has sent a legal opinion to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the matter of potential allocation of satellite spectrum. Penned by retired Supreme Court (SC) judge KSP Radhakrishnan, it argues in favour of auctions.
Business Standard has reviewed the letter, which pointed to the 2G judgement, and stressed that the SC ruled spectrum can only be alienated by auction and no other method.
“Nothing in the court's reasoning indicates that this conclusion would not apply to elimination of spectrum for the purpose of satellite based communication services,” the letter said.
It pointed out that the SC has opined that when natural resources are made available to private parties for their individual gains, the state must endeavour to maximise its own revenue by adopting competitive means of disposal.
"Any other method would be susceptible to challenge under Article 14 of the Constitution," the letter said.
It said that proponents of the administrative method had argued that the 2G judgement held auctions as “perhaps” the best method for discharging the burden of alienation of natural resources through a non-discriminatory method.
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However, the letter pointed out that “perhaps the best method” means the best method in the light of the fact that satcom spectrum is a scarce, finite and renewable natural resource of considerable financial stake to the public exchequer.
A similar legal opinion was sent by industry body Broadband India Forum (BIF) to Trai arguing against satellite spectrum auction.
Industry players are currently awaiting Trai's final recommendations on the matter.
The BIF, which represents tech majors like Google, Meta and Microsoft, and telecom equipment makers such as Ericsson, Cisco and Huawei sought the views of the former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's views on whether the law requires that the only way to allocate satellite spectrum is auction.
Rohatgi had said that auctioning satellite spectrum isn’t the most appropriate and efficient method of resource allocation.
As part of the last consultation process on the subject administered by Trai in June, tech firms like Elon Musk’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, Telesat, Tata Group’s Nelco, Hughes and Bharti Enterprises OneWeb had been united in their opposition to the auctioning of satcom spectrum. In contrast, telecom operators remained divided.
Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea pressed for auctions, while Bharti Airtel had argued against it.
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