Mittal turns against spectrum allocation to satellite cos

New Delhi: Telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal on Tuesday joined his rival Mukesh Ambani-led Jio, to make a strong case for satellite companies paying license fee as well as buying airwaves for their telecom services just like legacy companies do, in a bid to create a level-playing field.

Speaking at the India Mobile Conference, Mittal, who heads India’s second largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel, said existing telecom companies will take satellite services into the remotest parts.

“And those satellite companies who have ambitions to come into urban areas, serving retail customers, just need to pay the telecom licenses like everyone else. They are bound to the same conditions.

“They need to buy the spectrum as the telecom companies do, and need to pay the license as the telecom companies do, and also secure the networks of the telecom companies,” Mittal said in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last week, Ambani’s Reliance Jio had written to Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia opposing the telecom regulator TRAI’s recommendation of satellite broadband being allocated and not auctioned. Elon Musk’s Starlink and global peers like Amazon’s Project Kuiper back an administrative allocation.

Elon Musk reacts…

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, Starlink chief, reacted to Mukesh Ambani's efforts for spectrum auction to satellite companies.

Musk said “a move by India to auction satellite broadband spectrum, and not allocate it, would be unprecedented.”

Musk further stated on X that “this spectrum was long designated by the International Telecommunication Union as shared spectrum for satellites.”