Airtel Challenges Jio’s Satellite Unit’s Preference for Auctioning Process

While other players in the satellite communication industry, such as Bharti Airtel, have opposed it, Jio Satellite Communications is the sole company that has shown support for the auction of spectrum allocation.

SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, has also proposed an auction model, but it is not intended to be an auction of frequencies, but bids as a percentage of annual revenue as a value payment for frequencies instead of pre-currency bids.

Jio Satellite Communications Limited (JSCL) in its counter-comment to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) presented its sister company Reliance Jio Infocomm’s proposal to auction as the best and legal method of allocating radio spectrum.

“We argue that JSCL supports an auction-based process for allocating spectrum for space-based communications services. Auction-based allocation provides equal opportunity to all service providers and brings the necessary regulatory certainty and predictability as it is a legally sound allocation mechanism,” JSCL said.

Trai released the comments on Friday after the June 22 deadline.

The satcom company announced that it uses frequencies in the Ka and Ku frequency bands and would be interested in acquiring the right to use the frequencies of these frequencies in future auctions.

JSCL said regulatory certainty and predictability protect investment and are key to further investment in the sector.

“On the other hand, the administrative mandate is uncertain, anti-entrant and unpredictable due to its ‘first-come-first-served’ nature and legal unsustainability due to the Supreme Court judgment in the 2G case,” the company said.

Among telecom operators, Vodafone Idea proposed to allocate spectrum for space-based communication only through auction.

However, Airtel, OneWeb, Tata Group’s Nelco, Indian Space Association (ISpA), Satcom Industry Association and other players have opposed the allegation of spectrum allocation through auction.

Airtel said that in the Presidential Reference to provide certain clarifications on the 2G judgment, a larger bench of the Supreme Court has held that alienation of natural resources is a policy decision and there is no directive in the 2G judgment that resources can only be shared. through auctions.

ISpA said that while auction is a common method of allocating scarce resources such as terrestrial spectrum, but in the case of satellite spectrum, auction is not common or even the preferred method, instead administrative allocation is the common method. in the case of the satellite spectrum.

The industry body said satellite spectrum is inherently shared unlike terrestrial spectrum, which is exclusive.

“Furthermore, in the case of an auction, the winning bidder still has to share the frequency with other users. Thus, the bidder has no motivation to be the highest bidder because he cannot use all the frequencies. It makes the whole proposal to auction satellite frequencies an unnecessary exercise,” ISpA said.

Highlighting the importance of satellite communications, SIA-India said that Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have failed to meet national broadband targets for the majority of Indians living in rural and remote parts of the country for the past two to three years. decades.

It stated that despite adequate resources and government support, including the USOF and many other incentives, the TSPs could not penetrate these far-flung areas because their “only motive was to maximize profits in a lucrative market.”

“Satellite operators with their inherent capabilities are happy to extend their support to achieve the national broadband mission,” SIA-India said.

SpaceX said it remains opposed to the exclusionary auction plan, which is designed specifically for ground-based use, but is alone in its efforts to find a solution that will help accelerate the deployment of space-based communications for Indians.

“SpaceX proposed an auction in which bidders commit to a percentage of annual revenue as an ad valorem fee for the spectrum,” rather than upfront currency bids, SpaceX said.

Kupier Systems, Amazon’s satcom division, said auctioning frequencies for satellite-based services artificially limits existing and efficient spectrum allocation mechanisms, leads to avoidable fragmentation of available spectrum and limits the number of operators.

“If satellite operators are unable to use large, contiguous blocks of spectrum, this reduces incentives to invest in new satellite technologies and thus limits innovation,” Kupier Systems said.