Jio urges TRAI to re-evaluate administrative auction of satellite spectrum

Reliance Jio has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to re-evaluate the awarding of satellite spectrum to Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper, citing concerns that domestic telecom players could suffer, in a letter sent on Friday.

During TRAI’s recent open house discussions (OHD), Mukesh Ambani-led Jio argued that Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper have made it clear that they want to service customers across the nation and not just those in unserved areas.

"Starlink, Kuiper (Amazon), and other major satellite providers have collectively acknowledged that their services will not only compete with terrestrial communication services but will provide comparable or same quality, if not better, of communication services, in all areas be it rural or urban and will directly compete with the terrestrial services," the letter stated.

India’s leading telecom company further argued that this provides sufficient justification for the Indian government to opt for an auction rather than an administrative allocation of spectrum.

“Assignment through the auction will provide an opportunity for Indian entities to directly compete with foreign entities, who have blocked first-come-first-served based ITU (International Telecommunication Union) priority list, and plan their own constellation. In the absence of clarity and certainty of spectrum assignment/priority, no Indian entity will ever be able to launch its own NGSO (non-geostationary orbit) constellation,” Jio said.

Jio further said Starlink and Kuiper have more bandwidth capacity that can easily rival all three leading operators put together.

As per Jio’s calculations, the company, along with its Indian competitors Vodafone Idea and Airtel, has built a total capacity of 23,012 million GB, in contrast to Starlink and Kupier who have a combined capacity of 29,092 million GB.

The Indian telecom major said that the auction must be a preferred mode of spectrum assignment for satcom services (for both mobile satellite service and fixed satellite service) as it will foster transparency and equal opportunities among various operators.