 "Trai releases consultation paper on satellite gateway authorisations")
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has brought out a consultation paper on network authorisations, asking the industry whether a separate authorisation is needed for satellite communication (satcom) services, especially for Satellite Earth Station Gateways (SESG).
The paper was brought out after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked Trai earlier this month to consider a separate authorisation for satcom. Interestingly, Trai had last month proposed a new authorisation called “Satellite-based Telecommunication Service Authorisation” for commercial satellite services, merging the erstwhile VSAT-CUG service and GMPCS licences.
In a major overhaul of the licensing ecosystem in the telecom sector, the telecom regulator had recommended three new categories of authorisations be created to cover the gamut of telecom services in the country in line with the new Telecom Act, 2023.
In the latest paper, Trai has asked the industry whether there is a need to review the eligibility conditions of the existing SESG authorisation, recommended back in 2022. A satellite gateway (also referred to as a teleport or hub) is a ground station that transmits data to/from the satellite to/from the local area network. It houses the antennas and equipment that convert the Radio Frequency (RF) signal to an Internet Protocol (IP) signal for terrestrial connectivity.
Trai has also questioned whether the government should merge the scopes of the existing Infrastructure Provider-I (IP-I) and Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Provider (DCIP) authorization into a single authorisation.