By S Ronendra Singh

Copyright thehindubusinessline

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday sought clarifications from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on its recommendations related to satellite communications (satcom) spectrum. TRAI is expected to respond within the next 15 days.

Sources close to the development told businessline that in the meeting of the Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the highest policy-making body of DoT, there were several points of disagreement with the TRAI on satcom spectrum.

“The DCC has disagreed on ₹500 fee imposed by TRAI on urban subscribers. It has also disagreed on the ₹3,500 per MHz recommended by TRAI on unused spectrum. The DoT will wait for the responses,” a government official privy to the meeting said.

In May, TRAI in its recommendations to the DoT, had said that operators offering satellite-based broadband Internet services in urban areas should shell out an additional ₹500 per subscriber annually.

Spectrum charges

It had also said that satcom companies like Starlink should pay 4 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as spectrum charges to the government, a rate steeper than what these firms had been lobbying for. No additional levy should be applicable for services in rural areas, it said.

However, according to sector experts, there should be a clear definition of urban and rural in case of the ₹500 fee to be imposed on the subscribers. Secondly, if the same spectrum is going to be used for mobile devices, apart from the fixed broadband services, then it would mean as good as any telecom business.

Specifically, because Elon Musk has recently announced that Starlink was developing direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services, which allows mobile phones to connect directly to Starlink satellites for communication, it could mean a direct threat to the incumbent telecom players.

In this context, the DoT’s clarifications raise red flags about under-pricing at ₹3,500 per MHz given that spectrum is a valuable resource.

Pegged higher

DoT believes that the these charges should be pegged higher to ensure spectrum doesn’t remain utilised.

Companies including Elon Musk-owned Starlink; Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio joint venture with SES and Globalstar; and Sunil Mittal backed Eutelsat OneWeb will be competing with each other in the satcom services as first movers.

The Centre is going to allocate the spectrum for satcom services administratively, for which DoT and TRAI are expected to come out with the final pricing, soon.

Published on September 16, 2025