Satellite spectrum sale will crumble rare resource, bar newer players: ISpA

Tussle over spectrum has intensified between satcom players and telcos as govt gears up to take a call on the issue

Auctioning shared satellite spectrum will fragment the key resource, exclude India from the global equipment value chain and bar newer and smaller companies from entering the promising sector, the Indian Space Association (ISpA) has argued.

These are part of the industry body's recommendations to the DoT, which will be submitted in the next few days, ISpA Director General AK Bhatt said on Wednesday.

Satellite or orbit spectrum is a segment of a radio spectrum that becomes available when satellites are placed into orbit. It is a limited resource in every country, used by companies to implement satellite broadcasting, communication satellite, and weather satellite services.

It has the potential to provide broadband connectivity in remote areas and bridge the digital divide.

India's satellite communication industry has argued that since the spectrum is globally considered to be a shared resource, partitioning it to few players would lead to globally assigned spectrum not being used in India.

On the other hand, most bidders would not have a motivation to participate in an auction since they would have to share it later, they believe.

Technical challenges

A a satellite constellation of satellites have one frequency in the world. The technical complexity would ensure issues such as orbital slots, interference management, and spectrum sharing, can't be taken into account in the case of an auction, Bhatt said.

ISpA has said this would shut India out of the global satellite equipment value chain which runs on standardization. As a result, smaller satellite operators would not be able to participate.

This would deprive the country of large capacities brought by satellite operators, inhibiting innovation in the sector.

This has been pointed out earlier by Bharti Enterprise Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti-backed satellite communications company OneWeb has launched a constellation of 618 satellites.

Mittal has petitioned the government that since satellite spectrum is required only in limited areas, and also since the business is not going to make billions of dollars of revenue, it should be allocated.

No global precedent

ISpA has said satellite spectrum is being allocated administratively the world over.

"Nowhere in the world are microwave or millimeter waves auctioned. Even the United States which auctioned satellite spectrum for space, later issued the Orbit Act in 2000 which comprehensively said they will oppose any auctioning," Bhatt stressed.

Nations like Brazil, and Mexico, which had tried auctions, all had to rescind it, he added. The most recent such auction in Thailand was scrapped after only one bid.

ISpA has also warned against repurposing the 28 GHz frequency range for terrestrial use. The band is globally reserved for satellite based 5G by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and changing this in India would compromise the timing, quality and affordability of last mile connectivity of spectrum.

In the draft Telecom Bill, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended the definition of “telecommunication services” to satellite-based communication, thereby giving itself the exclusive right to assign the spectrum.

But the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have cited the limited quality of satellite spectrum, the global shared nature of radio waves, and its vast, yet unrealised industrial and scientific use cases to ask the DoT to not regulate it.

Ongoing industry consultations on the issue being overseen by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will end on June 1. The Department of Space and Isro are also expected to submit their views to DoT soon.