India will be the first country to auction spectrum for satellite communications and it should be designed to attract investment in the sector, telecoms regulator TRAI chairman PD Vaghela said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a Broadband India Forum SatCom summit, Vaghela said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will shortly make recommendations to make the approvals required for satellite communications from different ministries – Information and Broadcasting, Space and Telecommunications – seamless to facilitate doing business in this sector. He also said TRAI received a reference from them Telecommunications Department for the frequencies required for the auction and related aspects of satellite-based communication.
“I think India will be the first to address the issue of auctioning off the space base spectrum. We’re working on it,” said Vaghela.
TRAI will release some kind of model for the space spectrum auction, he added. “But it shouldn’t kill the sector. This is very important. Any system we are going to put in place is designed to actually encourage and encourage investment in the sector and not add to the burden. I mean, that’s the biggest challenge we have and we’re aware of that fact,” Vaghela said.
TRAI has yet to submit a consultation paper on spectrum auction according to the standard procedure for satellite communications.
When asked about the status of the paper, Vaghela said that the regulator was discussing a suitable model with experts and regulators worldwide and the consultation paper would be published after these discussions were completed. While telecom operators have proposed allocating spectrum through an auction for satellite communications, satellite industry stakeholders have opposed it.
