 "Telecom Bill 2023: GMPC players may get spectrum at administered price")
Telecom Bill 2023: In what could be a major win for Sunil Mittal's OneWeb, the telecom Bill proposed to be tabled in Parliament on Monday is believed to have included global mobile personal communications (GMPC) satellite providers among those to be assigned spectrum under the administered price. While OneWeb had been pushing for this, rival telco Reliance Jio, part of the Mikesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd, had been demanding auction of spectrum.
Currently, the Telecommunications Bill 2023 specifies that as far as spectrum management is concerned, the government may assign it for telecom either through auction or administrative process for government purposes in view of public interest or necessity in Schedule 1, or any other means.
Schedule 1 includes radio backhaul for telecommunications services, certain satellite-based services such as teleports, direct-to-home, VSAT, mobile satellite service in L and S bands, national security, defence, and any other functions which the government determines should be included.
In 2012, Supreme Court had said: “When it comes to alienation of scarce natural resources like spectrum etc., it is the burden of the state to ensure that a non-discriminatory method is adopted for distribution and alienation which would necessarily result in the protection of the national and public interest.”