Satcom spectrum allocation by govt part of law: Scindia

Jio’s objections have already irked Musk who protested suggestions of an auction. “That would be unprecedented, as this spectrum was long designated by the ITU as shared spectrum for satellites,” he posted on X on Monday.
In his speech at IMC, Mittal appeared to be going with Jio’s stand. “Satellite operators who want to provide services to urban areas and retail customers indeed need to go through the regular licensing process of any country, and in this case, India, to obtain a licence; buy the spectrum; undertake all the obligations, including rollout and security; pay their licence fees and taxes and they would be welcomed by the telecom fraternity.”
At the event, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the new law mandates administrative allocation of spectrum and added that it is the case for all other global markets.
“Spectrum for satellite services will be allocated administratively but that doesn’t mean that it will come without a cost. The cost of spectrum and the formula of allocation will be decided by telecom regulator Trai… Satellite spectrum across the world is administratively allocated. So, India is not doing anything different from the rest of the world… satellite spec trum is a shared spectrum. Now if the spectrum is shared then how can you price it individually?”
Jio is said to be looking at all angles to stop administrative allocation, including legal recourse.
On the data localisation front, Ambani was categorical on local storage. “The scale and speed of multilingual data generation in India, which will drive the AI revolution, will grow exponentially. We request the government to expedite the updating of the 2020 draft of the Data Centre Policy. Indian data should remain in Indian Data Centres. Therefore, Indian companies are ready to set up AI and machine learning data centers (and) should get all necessary incentives, including incentives for power consumption. Indian mobile companies, along with the thriving ecosystem, are in a position to offer solutions to the rest of the world, including developed countries.”