Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated on Friday that satellite spectrum allocation will not be done on a first-come, first-served basis, which is how radiowaves were allocated for 2G services.
While speaking at the India Economic Conclave, the minister stated that auctioning spectrum for satellite service is impossible due to the science involved and that no country has auctioned radio waves for the same purpose.
“There is no country in the world that auctions satellite spectrum because it's physically impossible to auction. Now you bring in the economic argument; how will you administratively allocate it? That pricing is not going to be on a first come, first served basis. None of this stuff. It's going to be decided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (of India). That authority will assign that price, and based on that, the spectrum will be assigned to everyone that procures a license," Scindia said.
In response to a question citing the 2G case, Scindia explained that there are both scientific and economic arguments linked to the spectrum allocation process.
"How can you auction something that is shared? You can only auction something that is committed to a certain individual? So satellite phones, for example, you have to point your antenna, and that's when you get the signal, and it keeps shifting. Therefore, that spectrum is shared. Every single country across the world, because of its physics principles, satellite spectrum is always administratively assigned," the minister said.
Government plans to provide spectrum to satellite companies through an administrative process and without an auction have been met with opposition from telecom operators.
Speaking about telecom PSU BSNL, which is losing money, Scindia stated that the company has been producing operating profits since 2021 and that revenues have risen by roughly 12% to Rs 21,000 crore, while expenses have decreased by 2%.
He claimed that the company's decision to deploy a network built on domestically created technology is the reason it has been a little late in launching 4G service.
"We have rolled out on this date close to 62,000 towers of Indian technology. India is the only fifth country in the world to have its own 4G hardware and its own 4G stack. Now, by the time I roll out 100,000 towers, which will be by May or June of 2025, I will also start switching some of my towers from 4G technology to 5G technology for BSNL," Scindia said.
“By June 2025, every nook and corner of the will have telecom connectivity," Scindia said.
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