After a temporary truce, Airtel and Reliance Jio take on Musk’s Starlink once again

NEW DELHI: The temporary truce that domestic telecom majors Airtel and Reliance Jio struck with Elon Musk’s satcom venture Starlink has been disturbed. The local telecom operators have raised questions over Trai’s recommendations regarding spectrum allocation to satcom companies and alleged that they are “non-transparent and non-justifiable”, and favour satellite companies over the homegrown terrestrial operators.Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body representing the local companies, claimed that much against Trai’s assumption that satcom will be a fringe player with a business case only in network-unserved areas and rural regions, the “reality” is that it will compete with the terrestrial networks. “These recommendations thus create a substantial regulatory arbitrage as they fail to appreciate that in reality, satellite communication services are fast emerging as full-fledged competitors in the broadband market and the leading NGSO (non-geostationary satellite orbits) constellations are actively targeting retail and enterprise users in all geographies, including urban and well-connected regions,” COAI DG Lt. Gen. (Retd) SP Kochhar said.COAI claimed that Trai did not take into account inputs provided by the local players before coming out with its recommendations that are now being considered by the telecom ministry. “These recommendations are non-transparent based on non-justifiable assumption rather than factual data. The limited consideration of stakeholder inputs coupled with the absence of comprehensive consultation on key issues — such as ensuring a level-playing field, evaluating network capacity, determining assignment methods, and establishing fair spectrum valuation—along with reliance on flawed assumptions, has culminated in recommendations that are not only inequitable but may also contravene the principles embodied in the Telecommunications Act, 2023.”The local companies – who buy airwaves through auctions — had previously raised objections to the government’s decision to give spectrum to satcom companies administratively, but had later decided to partner Starlink (both Airtel and Jio), weeks after Musk had a meeting with PM Narendra Modi during the latter’s visit to the US in February.Starlink recently received a letter of intent (LoI) from the telecom ministry to begin services, and now awaits a formal license.In its representation, COAI also raised objections to the “differential spectrum pricing’ suggested for terrestrial services versus satcom operators. “… the price per MHz should be equivalent or at least comparable for both, especially when used to reach the same consumers for identical services. Equity and non-discrimination principles require that if spectrum for satellite-based services are to be assigned administratively rather than through auction, its pricing must reasonably reflect parity with auction-discovered rates applicable to terrestrial spectrum in comparable frequency bands.”