Billionaire Battle: India to allocate satellite spectrum, no auction after Musk criticises Ambani’s auction push
India's government will allocate spectrum for satellite broadband administratively, rejecting auction proposals. This decision follows criticism from Elon Musk regarding rival Mukesh Ambani's auction push amid a growing $1.9 billion market.
Billionaire Battle: In a victory for Elon Musk, who's SpaceX arm Starlink was eyeing the satellite broadband space in India, the government on October 15 said that it will now spectrum to players, instead of calling for auction bids, as per a Reuters report.
Musk had strongly opposed rival billionaire and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's push for spectrum auction and criticised it as “unprecedented”, it said. The Indian government's announcement came hours after Musk criticized the auction route, the report added.
‘Spectrum to be Allocated Administratively’
Speaking at an event in New Delhi, Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the spectrum “will be allocated administratively in line with Indian laws”, he added that pricing would be worked out by the telecom watchdog.
“If you do decide to auction it, then you will be doing something which is different from the rest of the world,” Scindia added.
Musk expressed his appreciation of social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), which he owns, stating: “We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink.”
Battle of the Billionaires
The Indian satellite services market is expected to grow by 36 per cent annually to reach $1.9 billion by 2030. And as such, the spectrum awarding method has come under increased focus since last year.
Musk's Starlink has backed government issued license system as is followed globally, while Ambani's Reliance had backed the auction route to “ensure a level playing field”, the report noted. India at present does not have any laws regarding provision of satellite broadband services to individuals.
In a post on X late on October 14, Musk said that any decision to auction “would be unprecedented”, adding “This spectrum was long designated by the ITU as shared spectrum for satellites.”
ITU is the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency for digital technology, to which India is a member and signatory. It advocates that allocation must be done “rationally, efficiently and economically” as it is a “limited natural resource”.
Mittal Favours Auction Route, Amazon Backs Allocation
Notably, Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal, who is co-chair of global satellite group Eutelsat, had also expressed support for the auction route on October 15.
“Satellite companies who have ambitions to come into urban areas, serving elite retail customers, just need to take the telecom licenses like everybody else... they need to buy the spectrum as telecom companies buy,” Mittal stated.
However, Amazon's Project Kuiper backed an administrative allocation, saying spectrum is a natural resource that should be shared by companies.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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First Published:16 Oct 2024, 10:43 AM IST
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