With India snubbing Reliance Jio’s proposal to public sale airwaves for satellite tv for pc communication and favouring administrative allocation as an alternative, the transfer is being seen as an enormous win for a number of the firm’s largest rivals, notably billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Although the division is being framed as a battle of billionaires, the fact is that it’s infeasible for any single nation to public sale satellite tv for pc spectrum, given its very nature. Not like terrestrial spectrum which is used for cell communications, satellite tv for pc spectrum has no nationwide territorial limits and is worldwide in character. It’s due to this fact coordinated and managed by the UN company, Worldwide Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The Telecommunications Act, 2023, has added spectrum for satellite tv for pc communication within the record of administrative allocation. The Division of Telecommunication (DoT) had later requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to give you a methodology to assign the spectrum.
With TRAI exploring pricing fashions for the service, Jio wrote to the regulator making a case for public sale of satellite tv for pc spectrum. Their important argument is that administrative allocation could not be capable to convey a few degree enjoying area between satellite tv for pc and terrestrial companies. Musk, nevertheless, responded to the submissions, saying: ““That might be unprecedented, as this spectrum was lengthy designated by the ITU as a shared spectrum for satellites”.
With Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia saying India will observe the worldwide norm by allocating satellite tv for pc spectrum, right here’s a low down on what the service is and the way international locations have tried auctioning the airwaves to no avail:
What’s satellite tv for pc communication, and what advantages does it provide to end-users?
Satellite tv for pc communication companies depend on an array of satellites in orbit to supply connectivity to properties and companies on the bottom. They’re an alternative choice to floor based mostly communication, known as terrestrial networks, equivalent to cable, fibre, or digital subscriber line (DSL), they usually don’t require wires to transmit knowledge.
For end-users, satellite-based communication and broadband companies provide advantages on two key factors: wider protection, and a extra resilient community. Though the latency of satcom companies can at occasions be greater than terrestrial broadband networks, they will cowl huge swathes of areas with little or no bodily gear needing to be put in.
Satellites that orbit in area are very important for communication networks to achieve the farthest corners even in distant areas that cell telephony can not entry. Thus, it’s usually understood that when satcom companies will change into extra mainstream, a variety of low mendacity areas, rural areas and areas impacted by frequent exigencies may benefit from fixed connectivity.
Satellite tv for pc-based web can be usually believed to be extra resilient than terrestrial-based communication companies since they’ve comparatively fewer elements on the bottom. The gear for satellite tv for pc communication is, due to this fact, much less more likely to maintain injury throughout excessive climate and different emergencies.
A contemporary report by KPMG in India, has estimated that India’s satcom sector, which presently stands at $2.3 billion a 12 months, will attain $20 billion by 2028. At current, the nation ranks fourth by way of investments within the sector, globally. Based on Morgan Stanley, there are 290.4 million households in India that are untapped with broadband and that may be a robust market alternative for satellite tv for pc operators to faucet.
How do international locations around the globe assign satellite tv for pc spectrum to operators?
It’s first necessary to grasp the important thing distinction between spectrum for terrestrial networks and satellite tv for pc communication, and why the excellence between allocation and auctioning arises within the first place. For terrestrial cell companies, the spectrum is unique and is managed solely by a single cell operator in a given geographic space; due to this fact, this can’t be shared between or amongst operators. Whereas within the case of satellites, the identical spectrum is non-exclusive in nature and it may be utilized by a number of satellite tv for pc operators to serve the identical geographic space.
The final development, due to this fact, is of allocating the spectrum administratively.
Just a few international locations, equivalent to the US of America, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, have carried out auctions for frequency spectrum prior to now. The US and Brazil carried out an public sale of satellite tv for pc spectrum together with orbital slots. Nevertheless, each the international locations have since reverted to administrative task after discovering the method infeasible.
The US final carried out an public sale for satellite tv for pc spectrum in 2004 for 3 home orbital slots for broadcasting companies. Since then, it has deserted satellite tv for pc auctions. Within the US, an annual regulatory charge for VSAT and equal C-Band antennas working within the 12 and 14 GHz is $595 per licence or authorisation.
In 2020, Brazil amended its regulatory framework to interchange satellite tv for pc auctions with administrative licensing. Although satellite tv for pc touchdown rights are assigned by means of bidding within the nation, the spectrum for use for satellite tv for pc companies will not be auctioned individually.
Saudi Arabia lately carried out an public sale of spectrum within the S-band, which ranges from 2 GHz to 4 GHz and is used for cell satellite tv for pc companies (MSS) in addition to climate and air site visitors management functions. Nevertheless, for the reason that technical traits of the S-band are such that it’s assigned on an unique foundation for MSS, public sale will be carried out in a way much like the spectrum public sale for terrestrial cell companies.
