Eutelsat OneWeb, Jio seek provisional satellite spectrum to be future-ready
Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio are believed to have called on communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to consider early provisional allocation of satellite spectrum for around six months so that companies that have the requisite permissions can quickly launch broadband-from-space services commercially in India.
Companies need a GMPCS (global mobile personal communications by satellite services) license and necessary regulatory approvals from Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) before launching commercial satcom services in India, a nascent market but with a lot of potential, say experts.
The issue came up during a meeting with key industry stakeholders of the satcoms ecosystem that was chaired by Scindia on Monday, two people aware of the matter said.
Both Eutelsat OneWeb and Orbit Connect India — a 51:49 JV between Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms (JPL) and Luxembourg-based satcoms player, SES — have the GMPCS licences and the necessary IN-SPACe authorisations vital to launch satellite broadband services in India. Both companies also have landing rights authorisation to deploy their global satellite constellation capacities in India. They, in fact, are ready to launch services as soon as they receive satellite spectrum from the government.
Both companies want to have a first-mover advantage in a satcoms market which has attracted global biggies such as Amazon-backed Kuiper and Elon Musk-owned Starlink. The two global companies still require a bunch of statutory approvals,
